Madam, - The decision to delay applying energy ratings to new homes is revealing (The Irish Times, January 2nd).
Does the Government now admit what many house-buyers already know very well, to their cost: that Ireland's building regulations are not worth the paper they are written on? And they never will be without stage by stage inspection and enforcement - simply because they are widely ignored. If new homes were rated for energy efficiency, very few would pass - and no amount of spin could conceal this embarrassing truth.
This fudge is yet another demonstration of our unique version of democracy: government of the developers' customers, by the developers' cronies, for the developers. Will we never learn? - Yours, etc,
Dr DUNCAN J MARTIN, Townsfield, Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary.
Madam, - I read with dismay that the regulations requiring new homes to be energy rated will now apply only to developments given planning permission from January 1st, 2007, instead of July 1st, 2006, as was stated earlier. Purchasers of new homes in Ireland will therefore not benefit from an energy rating certificate for up to two years.
Why not? The building energy rating system is intended, I believe, to promote awareness and transparency in the marketplace vis-à-vis the energy performance of individual buildings. Provided the system does not fall foul of cronyism, this is a positive initiative, advancing awareness of the role we all play in CO2 generation.
In the case of our existing building stock, it is clear that enormous quantities of heat are lost because houses are leaky or poorly insulated. In the case of new buildings, existing regulations, such as they are, are not always meticulously adhered to.
In our recent history, dramatic and positive changes have successfully been implemented: the smoking ban, the change to the euro, for example. Do we accept the mounting scientific evidence on climate change? Do we not feel as Irish people that we must take responsibility? - Yours, etc,
RAFTERY AHERN, Budapest, Hungary.