Just one Government office building has A grade energy-efficiency rating

Just one of 238 office buildings occupied by Government Departments and agencies has achieved an A rating for energy efficiency.

Figures released by the Office of Public Works show the majority of public buildings have relatively poor energy ratings despite a huge policy focus on retrofitting and energy efficiency by successive governments over the past decade.

The only building owned or leased by the OPW with an A rating is the Revenue Warehouse in Limerick which scores an A2. Just 38 of the 238 buildings have a B rating and, of those, only two have a B1 rating — the Ionad an Bhlascaoid interpretative centre in West Kerry, and the Central Remedial Clinic offices in Swords, Co Dublin.

In contrast, 14 offices and buildings have energy ratings of E or less. Of those, six have an energy rating of G. They are: Con Colbert House East in Dublin; Con Colbert House West; John’s Road Revenue office in Dublin; Balbriggan Passport Office; Goldsmith House on Pearse Street in Dublin; and the head office for Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) in Shannon, Co Clare.

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The information was disclosed on foot of a parliamentary question submitted by Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall. Responding to the data she received, Ms Shortall said Ireland declared a climate and biodiversity emergency in 2019 but the Government’s climate rhetoric had not been matched by climate action.

“The vast majority of public buildings have yet to undergo the extensive retrofitting that will be required to ensure they are energy efficient.

“Instead of rolling out an ambitious programme of retrofitting in public buildings, the vast majority of the focus has gone into a staff energy awareness campaign which commenced in 2008 — 12 years ago. Campaigns of this nature, while useful, should not be used as a replacement for making buildings more energy efficient,” she said.

The OPW said the standard used to measure energy efficiency in its buildings was the more exacting Display Energy Certificate (DEC) which measured “actual” consumption over a 12-month period and not the Building Energy Rating (BER) measure which indicated predicted energy performance.

IT affect

In a statement the OPW said many of its buildings had improved but the results of those energy savings were not easily evidenced in a DEC rating. It said that as of January 2022, 58 per cent of its buildings were C3 or better, compared to 60 per cent of OPW buildings being D1 or worse when the energy efficiency campaign was first introduced in 2008.

It also pointed out that several of its buildings with poorer ratings have very large IT server rooms. “The benchmark building that is used to calculate the DEC rating does not have an equivalent high electrical demand for ICT servers. This results in a poor rating even if the building is very energy efficient by today’s standards,” it said.

[ Kildare, Meath and Dublin County have highest proportion of homes rated A for energy-efficiency ]

“Other examples of office buildings that have poor ratings are those that have a production, mailing and distribution function. As before, these buildings will typically compare poorly against the reference building.”

The OPW said 120 energy retrofits have been completed in its buildings since 2008, mainly involving upgrades of lighting, heating and control systems. Average energy savings of over 25 per cent have been achieved through this initiative, it said.

In his own response to the PQ, the Minister of State for the OPW Patrick O’Donovan said that despite an ageing office portfolio, the OPW has continuously upgraded and refurbished its buildings to increase energy efficiency and sustainability.