COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
Monday, January 12, 2009
QUESTION NO. 3
QUESTION: Councillor S. Crowe
To ask the Manager will he suppply a detailed report outlining the financial or any other implications involved for this Council in implementing the new Building Energy Requirment regulations that are being introduced by the Department of Environment?
REPLY:
The new Building Energy Rating laws require that all dwellings, new or existing offered for sale or for rent must have a Building Energy Rating Certificate from 1st January 2009. Also, all non-domestic buildings must have a certificate – this includes public buildings such as our own H.Q., leisure centres, community centres, libraries and other such buildings.The Council has trained a number of its staff as Building Energy Rating Assessors, and these Assessors have been registered with Sustainable Energy Ireland, the agency charged with the responsibility for administering this new legislation. Each BER certificate issued will incur a charge of €25+V.A.T. payable to SEI and an independent assessor charges in the region of €375/€400 per assessment.
While it is difficult to make predictions in the current economic climate, it is estimated that approximately 830 certificates may have to be provided by the Council in 2009.
Based on this figure, if the Council was to pay external assessors, it would cost approximately €332,000 (830 x 375 + €25 per unit). However, our training outlay was €30,000, and we will have to pay €25 per certificate issued, and this amounts to a total of €50,750. Because we have our own Assessors and they are part of our workforce, the actual savings accrued based on these figure will be approximately €281,250. Every year after 2009 will generate similar savings through utilising our own trained Assessors.