The EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) was transposed, on time, in Ireland on 5 July 2024 by S.I. No. 336/2024 - European Union (Corporate Sustainability Reporting) Regulations 2024. The companies that fall within the scope and their respective timelines for commencing reporting are as follows:

• public interest entities in scope of EU non-financial reporting rules, such as credit institutions, insurance undertakings and undertakings with transferable securities listed on a main EU market, with more than 500 employees, reporting starting with the year 2024;

• large companies, having two of the following: a balance sheet greater than € 25 million, a turnover greater than € 50 million, and employees greater than 250, reporting starting with the year 2025;

• listed SMEs, reporting starting with the year 2026, with a possibility to opt out until 2028;

• and finally, large subsidiaries and branches of non-EU companies with a net turnover of € 150 million in the EU, reporting starting in 2028.

The Irish government has announced that it will amend the current legislation to reflect the Omnibus package and the EU’s “Stop-the-Clock” initiative following their approval at the EU level. The “Stop-the-Clock” Directive has been transposed into Irish law (S.I. No. 309/2025), deferring the application of the CSRD by 2 years for the 2^nd and 3^rd wave companies.

Ireland welcomes the Omnibus Package, and the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Peter Burke, stated that they will follow the proposed changes to Irish legislation. Based on the “Stop-the-Clock” Directive, Ireland is supposed to transpose the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) into national law by 26 July 2027. The original deadline of transposition was 26 July 2026, but Ireland did not yet start the CSDDD’s transposition process before the “Stop-the-Clock” Directive.

Ireland has transposed the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive into Irish law with the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2022 on 21 July 2022, making Ireland one of the many EU countries missing the deadline of 17 December 2021. The act amended the Protected Disclosures Act of 2014. The new requirements introduced by the Act are as follows:

• all private sector organisations with 50 employees or more must set up an internal whistleblowing system;

• scope of protected persons is extended by amending the definition of “worker”, including shareholders, volunteers, trainees, members of the administrative, board members, former workers, as well as job applicants;

• wrongdoings have a wider definition, including criminal offences, failure to comply with legal obligations, breaches of certain European Union law, endangering the health and safety of individuals, damaging the environment, miscarriage of justice, and misuse of public funds, among others and can take place in or outside Ireland.

While the civil society organisations argued that the new Act could be a step backwards, an amendment was made only six months after it came into force to further align it with the EU Directive. The amendment ensured that persons reporting breaches to EU institutions receive the same protection as those reporting to national authorities. The present regulation became effective on 22 July 2023.

The EU Directive on Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions was transposed into Irish law (S.I. No. 686/2022) on 16 December 2022. Many of the provisions of the Directive were already part of the Irish employment framework. However, the transposition of the Directive posed legislative changes to the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994, the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003, and the Workplace Relations Act 2015. The legislative changes require employers to provide more extensive information to employees about the essential aspects of the employment relationship and to guarantee fair working conditions, including:

• a limit to the length of probationary periods at the beginning of a job;

• the right to know in a reasonable period in advance when work will take place;

• anti-abuse legislation for zero-hour contract work;

• the right to receive mandatory training, cost-free, that is required to carry out the work, and;

• the right for employees to request to be transferred to a form of employment with more predictable and secure working conditions when possible.

Ireland has missed the deadline of 15 November 2024 for the transposition of the EU Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages. The proposed National Minimum Wage (Adequate Wages for Living) Bill 2024, entitled the Act to amend the National Minimum Wage Act 2000, is currently being debated at the Senate of the Irish legislature. The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment stated that Ireland’s current minimum wage setting framework is already in compliance with the Directive and no new legislation is needed to bring the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 in line with the Directive on collective bargaining elements.

The EU Posted Workers Directive is transposed into Irish law on 1 October 2020 in the form of S.I. 374 of 2020 European Union (Posting of Workers) (Amendment) Regulations 2020. The main new measures are as follows:

• the implementation of a 12-month time limit on postings, where any posting that extends beyond this period earns the same rights as local employees;

• where applicable, the law goes beyond the Directive, including giving posted workers access to collective agreements as an expansion of their employment rights;

• and workers posted by “a temporary employment undertaking” or “placement agency” have the same rights as workers in the organisation to which they are assigned

The existing energy performance regulations in Ireland apply to the construction of new buildings and renovations. The 2019 Building Regulations provide the Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB) standards:

• For non-residential new buildings: a 60% improvement in energy performance compared to the 2008 Building Regulations and a mandatory requirement to use renewable energy sources, which must provide 20% of the primary energy use, corresponding to the A3 Building Energy  Rating (BER);

• For non-residential renovations: upgrading heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting systems that are older than 15 years;

• For new residential buildings: a 25% improvement in energy performance compared to the 2011 Building Regulations;

• For residential renovations, where more than 25% of the surface area of the existing dwelling is being renovated: the energy performance of the building or the renovated part of the building must meet the Building Energy Rating (BER) of B2 or equivalent.

The Building Energy Rating (BER) issued by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland is administered by the local authorities.

Article 17(15) of the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) is transposed into Irish law as S.I. No. 749/2024, providing that from 1 January 2025, public bodies shall not provide any financial incentives for the installation of stand-alone boilers powered by fossil fuels other than those already approved under EU funds.

Article 13(9)(a) and (10) of the EPBD are transposed into Irish law as S.I. No. 642/2024, which provides for the amendment of the requirements for building automation and control systems. For example, an existing building should, before 31 December 2024, where technically and economically feasible, be equipped with a building automation and control system that would continuously monitor, log, analyse, and adjust the building's energy use.

In line with the transposition of the EPBD, the following actions will be taken in 2025:

• developing embodied carbon methodology and establishing structures to reduce carbon in construction materials for all new buildings;

• the implementation and governance of the public sector building stock decarbonisation roadmap to guide progress towards the 2030 targets;

• publishing the bill to transpose the EPBD, and;

• developing the first draft of the National Building Renovation Plan (NBRP).

The EED has not been fully transposed into Irish law yet. However, the EED's energy auditing compliance mandate has been transposed into Irish legislation, requiring large organisations to complete energy audits every four years. In addition, Ireland has conducted a consultation process with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to assess their interests and capacities during the development of new policies regarding the transposition of the EED.

In September 2020, Ireland transposed the relevant EU Waste Directives into national legislation. The three new statutory instruments signed on 28th August 2020 are:

• European Union (Waste Directive) Regulations 2020 (S.I. No. 323 of 2020);

• European Union (Landfill Directive) Regulations 2020 (S.I. No. 321 of 2020);

• European Union (Packaging Directive) Regulations 2020 (S.I. No. 322 of 2020).

As part of the National Waste Management Plan for a Circular Economy, the government of Ireland and the Environmental Protection Agency envision the following for the management of construction and demolition waste: a 2% reduction per annum is proposed for total construction and demolition waste to achieve a cumulative 12% reduction by 2030. This should be achieved through two national regulations, Regulation 27(By-Product) and Regulation 28 (End of Waste), which aim to avoid unnecessary waste generation by allowing the use of materials as a resource and aiming for the recovery of waste materials by recycling, respectively.

Ireland’s Climate Action Plan, prepared under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021, sets out strategies for climate neutrality by 2050. For the built environment, it sets sectoral limits, key targets and measures and actions to follow. Some of the main targets are as follows:

• All new buildings should be Nearly Zero Energy Buildings by 2025 and Zero Emission Buildings by 2030;

• 120,000 buildings to be retrofitted to achieve BER B2 rating by 2025, the number is 500,000 for 2030;

• 170,000 new buildings using heat pumps by 2025, and 280,000 by 2030;

• 45,000 existing buildings using heat pumps by 2025, and 400,000 by 2030

• Delivery of savings of 0.735 Kt CO₂e in public and commercial buildings.

The government of Ireland launched a loan programme to upgrade the energy performance of buildings. For the owners, a loan of €5,000 to €75,000 for a term of up to 10 years is provided for the purpose of energy upgrade works.

One measure under the Climate Action Plan is to extend district heating. The Government of Ireland has approved the Heat Bill 2024, which introduces the Renewable Heat Obligation (RHO), requiring suppliers to guarantee that a proportion of the energy supply is renewable.

The Construction Material Exchange Platform (CMEx) was established to achieve a circular economy in the built environment. It consists of a digital platform for trading excess building materials or reusable waste materials from projects. Launched by the Irish Green Building Council in December 2022, it aims to drive the transition to a circular economy.