Sargent attacks FF over homes plan

GREEN Party leader Trevor Sargent has widened his “dodgy builder” attack on junior minister Frank Fahey to incorporate the entire Fianna Fáil party.

Mr Sargent has accused the Government of delaying the implementation of an EU directive which would have ensured houses were more energy-efficient.

The result of the delay is higher energy bills for householders, he says.

The EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive was supposed to take effect in member states last January but won’t now be introduced until next year.

The aim of the directive is to improve energy performance of buildings to benefit both the environment and the consumer.

Under the directive, buildings will be rated in terms of their energy consumption. Owners will have to supply “energy performance certificates” to buyers or tenants when buildings are sold or rented.

Earlier this month, Environment Minister Dick Roche announced the scheme would take effect for new houses from January 1 next. But he exempted new houses for which planning permission was applied before June 30 this year.

“[Through documents released] under Freedom of Information, it’s been made clear that political decisions were taken to delay implementation of that directive, so it wouldn’t affect the concrete industry adversely,” Mr Sargent said in an interview with this paper.

“That has sentenced thousands and thousands of hard-pressed mortgage holders to an unaffordable house, not just by the price of it but by the cost of heating it into the future.

“And that’s why I regard this Government as fitting the label of dodgy builders, because they have overseen the building of between 70,000 and 80,000 houses a year to a dodgy standard in international terms.”

Mr Sargent had first used the term “dodgy builder” about Mr Fahey in the Dáil in June, saying the junior minister had managed to “avoid tax in building up a multi-million euro property empire”.