Building regulations introduced in Ireland in 1991 should have included provisions for energy rating, a seminar on EU environment policy was told in Dublin yesterday.
With all the development seen since, the Department of the Environment and the local authorities responsible for building regulations had "adopted a miserable, half-hearted, prehistoric approach" to limiting the type of buildings allowed, said the speaker from the floor, a Dublin-based architect and fire safety engineer.
Energy rating had been introduced, he said, "as an option for new houses" in new regulations that emerged in 1997. "This should have been done in 1991 for all buildings and in 1997 an `environment' rating should have been introduced that would have included an energy rating component."
The criticisms were addressed to a panel of speakers that included Mr Jim Currie, director-general, DG XI (Environment), European Commission, and Ms Geraldine Tallon, assistant secretary in the Department of the Environment.
Official concern was on the increase in this area, said Ms Tallon, particularly in relation to commercial centres, which were being targeted strongly - because of studies from expert consultants which identified the need for strong action in terms of buildings generally. "We would like to see energy rating become a much more important part of these initiatives," she added.
As the keynote speaker, Mr Currie said there was a need for sustainable economic development that took due account of the environment - the major concern of EU policy post-Amsterdam.
"How do we reconcile economic development and the environment?" he asked. "If countries are to prepare for the 21st century, it is certain that economies will be driven more and more by environmental considerations - clean air and water, for example."
This was a key consideration for all concerned with the EU membership in prospect for central and eastern European countries. "Within the existing EU, that is one of the main problems on the horizon - whether or not environment policy is just an add-on cost consideration, and how this may be reconciled with economic growth."
Agriculture, transport and energy policies in particular must take more account of environmental considerations.
It was significant, according to the EC director-general, that the OECD had adopted "sustainable development" as part of its new philosophy. Such a position by the governments of the leading trading nations at macro level should make trade and business generally more conscious of how economics and the environment were interlinked.