Energy efficiency:The Department of the Environment late last year opposed efforts by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to impose higher energy standards for new homes, it has emerged.
In January, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown councillors ordered that buildings constructed after January 2008 must be 40 per cent more energy efficient, and supply 20 per cent of heating needs from renewable sources.
However, the Department of the Environment strongly opposed the plans in a letter to the council last December, warning that the targets would be "quite onerous" and increase the cost of homes.
"It is the department's view that the energy rating system to be introduced for dwellings in January provides a better basis for expressing required performance for buildings.
"Moreover, the proposed targets are quite onerous, and could add considerably to the average cost of a new building," department official Brian Spain told the council.
Though in force from January 1st this year, the energy rating rules referred to by Mr Spain are not as stringent as Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown's and cover only properties that receive planning permission from that date.
Ironically, the department letter stands in contrast to support from Minister for the Environment Dick Roche to a similar effort by Fingal County Council late last year. Then, Mr Roche said he was "impressed" by Fingal's proposals, "particularly the high standards for energy efficiency and environmental sustainability that have been incorporated into it. It is going to increase awareness of the energy performance of buildings among potential purchasers and tenants, large and small in the Dublin area," Mr Roche declared.
Under the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown rules, all planning permission given from January 2008 for more that 10 dwellings, or constructions over 1,000sq m (10,764sq ft), must be 40 per cent more efficient than today's average.
Each house must also emit 40 per cent less CO2 emissions from energy consumption and supply 20 per cent of house and water heating from renewable energy sources, such as pellet-fired boilers.
Condemning the department's intervention, Green Party leader Trevor Sargent said: "Progress at local level is highlighting the inertia at national Government level. I have heard - as I'm sure many of you have heard - that the Minister for the Environment is most embarrassed by local authorities being more progressive than he is.
"Indeed, when the new standards for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown were being finalised, the Minister for the Environment's own officials wrote to that county council, seeking to dissuade it from adopting the higher building standards.
"It's not the first time that national government has attempted to block forward-looking Green initiatives at local level," Mr Sargent told Green delegates and Dáil candidates.
"The problem lies in the way politics is funded in this country. What other explanation can there be for the bizarre Government acceptance of low standards in housing construction?"
