Every person who buys a house from January 1st of this year and those who undertook long term mortgages will be adversely affected by the decision of the Minister for the Environment Mr. Dick Roche, to apply for a deferment of the implementation of the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.
This was stated by Marian Harkin TD, MEP when she spoke on her adjournment motion in the Dail on Thursday, February 8th. The Independent TD said:
“I am glad to have the opportunity to highlight the fact that the Minister for the Environment has applied for a further delay in implementing the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and the negative impact this will have on consumers/house buyers and the environment. To some people this might seem like a pretty technical matter that wont have any major impact on their lives, but every person who buys a house from January 1st, 2007, every person who takes out a mortgage and spends the next 30 or 40 years paying that mortgage, will be adversely effected by the Minister’s decision.
“For approximately the next two years, builders will not have to provide energy efficiency certificates for the houses they build – so buyers will lose on two counts, they will need to obtain an energy certificate for their house if they decide to sell or rent with extra cost involved. But the big issues is, they don’t know what energy efficiency standard their house complies with and may have to do substantial remedial work to raise that standard if they wish to sell or rent.
“In this scenario the big losers are the house buyers and the environment – the winners are the building industry – this will line the pockets of builders. I believe that pressure from the building industry is the main reason for the delay. I have been told that the software isn’t ready – but that’s just a smokescreen – the real reason is that builders don’t want it – the real reason is to facilitate a small group of very large builders and of course this is not the first time this has happened. In 1997 a memo to the Minister for the Environment from he advisors stated that the Department should revise Part L of the building regulations in 1998/1999, rather than wait to 2002/2003. To quote the memo it says “ the next leap in building standard insulation will probably involve making it difficult for hollow block construction used widely in the Dublin area to survive. This has implications for manufacturers of hollow blocks and for builders etc”
What happened? – nothing happened – nothing until the regulations were reversed in 2003. In the meantime in excess of 250,000 houses – ¼ of a million houses were built with an energy efficiency rating approx 35% below what it should and could have been.
Winners – hollow block manufactures and builders – Losers – the ¼ of a million people who bought those houses.
That was a scandal but it is even more scandalous that once again house buyers are being held to ransom, the environment will suffer and the building industry will clean up. The Minister is spending millions of euro telling consumers how to conserve energy – yet by his action on this matter – it will cost house buyers millions of euro in remedial works in the future”, she concluded.
