Green TD's have identified cutting Irish carbon emissions and developing ecologically friendly villages as a blueprint for development in Ireland.
The ideas for sustainable development had been proposed by Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan and Minister for the Environment John Gormley respectively in the current edition of Construct Ireland.
Minister Gormley proposed fast tracking the eco village model, as exemplefied in the village in Cloughjordan Tipperary.
"Eco friendly homes can be delivered without the heavy infrastructural requirement associated with standard development," said the TD.
Gormley also suggested that the costs of services such such as water supply, waste water treatment and energy production could be offset by scrapping development levies.
North Tipperary council is currently set to zone a third of a seventy five acre as a sustainable extension to the eco village there. In total 132 new houses would be built.
70% of these houses would be south facing, which would allow the dwellings to more efficiently utilise more of the suns heat energy effectively heating the homes passively. Each house would be supplied with toilets that flush with rainwater as well as sewage treatment would involve the use of sand filters and reed beds.
A community scale combined heat and power (CHP) system would more efficiently supply electricity and heat to the houses.
The Construct Ireland interview also noted Minister Eamonn Ryan's comments on cutting carbon emissions.
Minister Ryan identified heating, power generation, transport and agriculture as the major areas in need of carbon emission cutback.
The minister said that in the areas of heating, power generation and transport "there is a government programme commitment to a hundred million euro insulation grant specifically aimed at existing primary residences, and relating to transport emissions, maybe changing investment priorities across the transport area."
Ryan also noted the importance of domestic wind turbines and solar panels, as well as a 'smart meter' system, where any excess electricity generated privately could be passed back to the Irish electricity grid.
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