TOWARDS HEALTHIER GREENER HOMES
Healthy Homes Ireland has welcomed the launch of the National Home User Guide as one in four Irish homes are found to pose health risks
Earlier this summer Healthy Homes Ireland, supported by the Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) and VELUX, hosted a breakfast event at Buswells Hotel, Dublin 2, to launch the Home User Guide. This simple, user-friendly template provides clear, non-technical information on home operation and maintenance. The Home User Guide, developed by the IGBC, with the support of Construct Innovate and Cairn Homes, is customisable for developers or housebuilders for development or renovation, ensuring residents receive practical, relevant guidance tailored to their homes.
The guide will help people operate their homes efficiently, maintain a healthy indoor environment, save money and reduce carbon emissions. The Home User Guide directly addresses Recommendation nine of the Healthy Homes Ireland 2023 report – Towards Healthier Greener Homes – which called for the development of best-practice guidance and templates to help tenants implement healthy and energy-efficient home operations. This recommendation falls under the report’s Occupant Empowerment strand, recognising the critical role of information and support in enabling home occupiers to manage indoor environmental quality and reduce home health risks.
By making this guidance widely available and easy to understand, the initiative supports not just environmental and energy goals but also public health and social equity, ensuring that good indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is not a privilege but a standard across all residential types and tenures.
Marion Jammet, Director of Advocacy and Policy at the Irish Green Building Council, said of the new Home User Guide, an accessible, practical tool designed to help people create and maintain healthier living environments: “Housing is about more than bricks and mortar – it’s about people’s health and wellbeing. This guide is an important milestone in empowering residents to understand and manage their homes for better health outcomes and energy efficiency.”
The Chair of Healthy Homes Ireland, Susan Vickers, highlighting the urgent need to put health at the heart of housing policy said: “The launch of the Home User Guide marks a key milestone in our mission to put health at the centre of housing in Ireland. As recommended in our 2023 report, Towards Healthier Greener Homes, this practical guide empowers people to understand how their behaviour influences their indoor environment, reduce their energy use, and how to live more sustainably.
“Government leadership is essential. We are calling on policymakers to embed health considerations into housing policy, both in new builds and retrofits, so that every home in Ireland supports the wellbeing of those who live there.” Professor Marcus Butler, Respiratory Consultant at St Vincent’s University Hospital and Medical Director at the Asthma Society of Ireland, who participated in a panel discussion at the launch event, said: “Indoor air quality has a profound impact on respiratory health. This guide is an essential tool in reducing exposure to common hazards such as damp, mould and poor ventilation. For instance, unhealthy homes with dampness create a perfect storm for house dust mite, the most common indoor allergen in these islands, and mould to thrive and can have negative allergic and irritant effects on occupants’ health, especially the hundreds of thousands of people in Ireland with chronic lung disease and contribute significantly to Irish healthcare costs. Improving the information available to householders will help address this.”
Marcus O’Connor, Managing Director of MFO Property Professionals, also a panellist at the event, added: “It’s essential that industry professionals – especially those in residential property and letting – understand the pivotal role indoor environmental quality plays in occupant health. Tools like the Home User Guide provide both landlords and tenants with practical guidance that supports better outcomes for wellbeing, building performance and regulatory compliance. This kind of clarity is long overdue in the property sector.”
TDs, senators, civil and public servants from relevant Government departments, as well as industry representatives from housing, construction, engineering, architecture, public health and the environment, also attended the event.
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Michael McDonnell Managing Editor of Irish Construction Industry Magazine & Plan Magazine
Email: michael@irishconstruction.com WWW.MCDMEDIA.IE
