Less than 10% of public buildings assessed for energy ratings

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the Government will give 'substantial supports' to the public in the face of rising energy prices.

Wed, 07 Sep, 2022 - 02:00

Elaine Loughlin and Paul Hosford

Fewer than one in 10 public buildings have been assessed to calculate their energy consumption, despite a push from the Government to make buildings more efficient.

The Office of Public Works (OPW) manages and maintains around 2,500 properties; however, fewer than 250 of these have received a display energy certificate (DEC) according to information released to the Irish Examiner.

Just a single building, Limerick Revenue Warehouse, is listed as A-rated.

Dublin's Pearse Street Garda Station, Goldsmith House which contains Department of Social Protection offices, and Balbriggan Passport Office have received a G rating, the lowest ranking possible.

Garda Headquarters in Phoenix Park has an E2 rating, the Met Office in Glasnevin is an E1, as is Knockalisheen direct provision centre in Co Clare.

The Department of Defence in Newbridge, Co Kildare, has a D2 energy rating as does Farmleigh House, which is used to accommodate visiting foreign dignitaries.

The Office of Public Works (OPW) manages and maintains around 2,500 properties; however, fewer than 250 of these have received a display energy certificate (DEC).

It comes as public buildings will now be expected to reduce unnecessary heating and to optimise heating timers and thermostats to reduce consumption over the winter period.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the Government will give "substantial supports" to the public in the face of rising energy prices.

Speaking in Offaly, Mr Martin said that a Government proposal to limit temperatures and energy usage in Government buildings is "sensible" and is as much to do with price as energy demand.

Meanwhile, a Fine Gael minister of state has said we cannot "wrap ourselves around in ideology" in calling for the reopening of two peat-powered energy stations.

Peter Burke has suggested that the peat stations, which have been recently decommissioned, should be put "firmly on the table" to ensure the country has an "emergency backup".

The ESB closed two peat-powered generating plants at Shannonbridge, Co Offaly, and Lanesborough, Co Longford, in 2020 after failing to secure permission to switch them to biomass power stations.

Mr Burke has now suggested that the Lanesborough plant could be easily brought back into use, stressing that there is already a significant harvested stock of peat at the plant and biomass could also be looked at.

However, he said more significant work would be required to get the plant in Shannonbridge back on the grid.

"I think Lanesborough should be firmly on the table in terms of trying to ensure an emergency backup for our grid because we will potentially need this," he told the Joe Finnegan Show on Shannonside Radio.

Asked about the environmental impact of burning peat to produce power, Mr Burke said: "I think we need to be pragmatic here as opposed to wrapping ourselves around in ideology.

"We're in a very, very difficult situation, I think last week when we saw the CRU, which is the regulator, and also EirGrid, which manages our supply in our grid, before the Oireachtas committee, and they pointed out starkly what the deficit was going to be this coming winter in terms of what we require to run our economy and what we can generate from our existing power plants and also from a renewable sector and is pretty significant, over 290 megawatts of a gap between those two key components."

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