Government buildings in Ireland are to benefit from improved energy efficiency, it has been announced.

The Central Government Building Upgrade Fund, funded by Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and administered by the Office of Public Works (OPW), will provide up to €4 million to improve the energy efficiency of up to 15 government buildings across the country.

It is part of a new pilot scheme to reduce the energy dependency of public buildings nationwide.

Jim Gannon, Chief Executive of the SEAI, said: "Improving the energy efficiency of our public buildings is one of the biggest challenges we have in Ireland and we have an obligation to work together to address this challenge. This pilot scheme will allow us, together with the OPW, to identify the right approach to energy management for public buildings. This will then be rolled out across all public sector buildings with potentially significant energy savings right across the sector."

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Maurice Buckley, Chairman of the OPW, said: "Ireland has committed to increasing energy efficiency in the Public Sector by 33%. Substantial progress has already been made through OPW programmes such as Optimising Power @ Work which has been rolled out to 270 Central Government Buildings over the last 7 years. It has resulted in energy savings of almost 20% and cost savings of nearly €6million annually. The Central Government Building Upgrade Fund will build on this progress, benefitting staff whilst at the same time further improving energy efficiency in our public buildings and delivering cost savings for the State."

(CD/LM)