Major improvements in building standards, including a ban on the use of hollow blocks in houses in Dublin, are to be proposed today by the Labour Party, in a major set of proposals to cut Ireland's energy needs and combat climate change.
Under the plan, half of all electricity should come from renewable sources within 13 years, while all new residential and commercial developments should be required by law to build their own generators, using anaerobic digesters, solar, or biomass.
All new houses built from 2008 should use 60 per cent less energy for water and space heating than today's equivalent, while the highest energy rating - due to be introduced from 2008 onwards - should only go to the best-built home.
All commercial and public buildings should be "carbon neutral by 2012", while all new homes built after 2012 should meet the German-established passive house standards, effectively meaning that no central heating system is needed.
Extra local authority inspectors should be hired to rigorously enforce building standards, which are often ignored today, including to monitor a nationwide ban on the use of hollow block bricks - one of the most inefficient building materials known. Hollow blocks are not supposed to be used for anything other than sheds and outhouses outside of Dublin, but their use is still sanctioned in Dublin by the Department of the Environment because, it claimed, the climate in the capital differed from the rest of the country.
The 50 per cent renewable energy target should be reached using wind, wave, tidal, biofuels and solar, according to the paper which will be launched today in Dublin by Labour's Eamon Gilmore and party leader Pat Rabbitte.
Large scale inter-connectors should be in place by 2012 to import 500 megawatts of power from the United Kingdom, while plans should also be put in place to import more electricity directly from the Continent.
The Labour document, Cleaning Up Our Act: Labour's Blueprint for a Low Carbon Ireland, will set new carbon reduction targets and proposes ways by which environmental damage can be factored into economic planning.
The Green Party, which has highlighted the difficulties in moving the economy over to green energy, has said that it wants a 100 per cent target by 2050 - although it has pointed out that 90 per cent of all Ireland's current energy needs are met from oil and gas.
"We should be aiming to reduce this to 80 per cent by 2010, 50 per cent by 2025 and by the middle of the century we should be net exporters of energy," the Greens said in their policy document some months ago.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said one-third of all Ireland's electricity needs should be met by renewables by 2025, while efforts should be made to develop a world-class sustainable energy industry here.
