Value of 250,000 homes ‘to drop over delay on EU rules’

UP to 250,000 new homes may not be energy efficient because the Government has delayed enforcing EU regulations to protect the concrete industry, it was claimed yesterday.

These houses will lose market value when tough new EU standards are introduced soon, the Dáil’s Environment Committee heard. Gerry McCaughey, chief executive of the country’s leading timber-frame home manufacturer, Century Homes, also told the committee that the Government, by delaying the introduction of EU energy-efficient standards and directives for homes, would leave the taxpayer footing a potential fine of €5 billion if Ireland fails to meet carbon emission targets.

He claimed the Government had delayed implementing new energy-efficient standards in the construction sector for five years because they would have a negative impact on the nine-inch hollow block and cavity wall sectors.

Mr McCaughey produced a confidential memo - which he obtained under the FOI Act - to then Environment Minister Noel Dempsey in 1998 which accepted the department would have to revise its building regulations sooner than it planned, due to the carbon dioxide emission targets set by the Kyoto Convention.

The memo went on to say: “We don’t want to signal this to the outside world just yet because the next ‘leap’ in building standard insulation will probably involve making it difficult for hollow block construction used widely in Dublin area to survive.”

Mr McCaughey claimed yesterday that no action was taken for a further five years by the Department of Environment.

“During those five years a staggering 250,000 houses were built to a standard of energy efficiency that was, according to the Government’s own figures, 35% below what it should have been,” he told the committee.

Responding to Mr McCaughey’s submission, Environment Minister Dick Roche strongly defended his department’s records, asserting that insulation standards in Irish homes were among the highest in the EU.

“I do not accept that the Government is trying to stymie the development of the timber-frame sector,” said Mr Roche, adding that timber-frame houses would comprise more than 50% of the market by 2010.

He questioned the motivation behind what he portrayed as “misleading and untruthful allegations”. “I am not prepared to favour any particular sector in my dealings with the construction industry.”

In his submission, Mr McCaughey accused the Government of dithering and favouring the concrete industry over timber-frame manufacturers. What he was seeking, he said, was a level playing field. He pointed to the fact that 64% of all new homes in Scotland use timber frames (the comparable figure for Ireland is 25%). In contrast, hollow-block construction continued to be widely used in Dublin, Meath and Kildare.

“Everybody knows it should no longer be used for private residential construction,” he said.

Committee chairman Sean Haughey (FF) said he would call in Environment officials to respond to the allegations in the light of “record levels of housing output over the past couple of years”.