Building A Home In Dreamland

The Green Party is all about being green, and they're all about making Ireland more green now that they're in coalition. For their first foray into the heady world of environmental policy and legislation, they've mandated that which cannot be done.

From July on, new houses will have to install solar panels, in a bid to reduce CO2 levels. What about houses already planned and approved but not yet under construction? Do the plans have to be redrawn and re-examined and re-approved? Who pays for the delays? There is an answer for the last question, of course. The home buyer will pay the price because all the costs incurred in building a home are ultimately paid by the buyer.

Tom Parlon, former Progressive Democrat and now spokesman for the Construction Industry Federation summed it up nicely. The technology to build according to Green Party rules does not exist. One would have to build in some imaginary dream world to meet the requirements. Unfortunately for the would-be Irish home buyer, they exist in a most solid and real world.

How will the green houses be heated? Solar heating has been suggested, but anyone who's spent any time in Ireland will know that the land is not particularly sunny. It's not California, where solar panels are bathed in sunlight for months on end. A solar heated home in Ireland had best come with a stockpile of wool jumpers and heavy blankets. If that doesn't appeal, the builder can look to a stove that burns recycled wood pellets. Then it's up to the home owner to find a steady source of biomass to keep the pipes from freezing.

Energy efficient lighting, houses sealed up air tight, and the architects must see into the future so that they can design homes that can be upgraded in the future. For only around EU15,000 added to the price of the house, at a time when families are roaring about the sky-high cost of real estate in modern Ireland...doesn't suggest a broad backing from the public.

Like most pipe dreams, the new initiative will fade away like the morning dew. Fine Gael is decrying the hypocrisy of forcing new home owners to pony up right after Government slashes spending to help existing owners retrofit their homes. The building trades will have their say, the voters will make their opinions felt, and everyone will be reminded that no one voted to put the Green Party into Government to begin with. In the end, the pressure of opposition will come forward and snuff the initiative out with a shower of cold reality.