Maybe he's visited the island's Teide Observatory, but it's unlikely that he has found the time.

Despite being on holiday, he has been busy fielding calls from radio stations and newspapers back home. Environment minister Dick Roche has got up his nose and he's finding it difficult to ignore.

Last week the minister admitted that the implementation of an EU directive that would have required builders to provide energy ratings for new homes will be delayed until 2009. It was supposed to be in force since last week.

McCaughey is positively apoplectic at the government decision, which he says smacks of a lack of leadership and which he alleges is a sop to influential builders and other vested interests.

"We don't have a Department for the Environment, we have a Department against the Environment, " quips 43-year-old McCaughey as he launches into a scathing attack on government policy.

McCaughey, who once ran as a Progressive Democrat candidate in his local constituency, is not immune to criticism. The directive is ultimately likely to benefit the construction of timberframed houses in Ireland, which have snagged almost a 30% share of the home-building market. By 2011, McCaughey reckons it will be 50%. He readily agrees that Century Homes, as well as Kingspan, have strong reasons to want the directive introduced as soon as possible, but claims his personal reasons for wanting movement on the issue have more to do with concern for the greater good than with lining his new owner's pockets.

He thinks the promised land is firmly within his grasp.

"Martin Luther King had a vested interest in civil rights because he was a black person, but it didn't make his cause any less just, " says McCaughey. The Century Homes chief executive is replete with analogies, so one shouldn't read in any delusions of grandeur into his statement. He just wants to make a point, he says.

"Global warming affects every single person on the planet. If that makes me a vested interest then so has every single Irish citizen a vested interest. I just happen to be a bit more vocal about it."

When Kingspan acquired Century Homes, which manufactures houses in its factories to be are assembled on-site, a three-year earn-out was put in place. That could bring McCaughey's total payment for his stake in the company to 31m. It was a big payday for the man who started the business back in 1990 after returning from a stint in California.

While the money has obviously made him financially secure, he says he still feels extremely passionate about Century Homes and that his barrage against the government is driven by much more than the desire to see the company benefit from an energy rating law.

"It's a cheap shot from the government against me to say I only do this because I have a vested interest in it. I am willing to put my neck on the block and argue with the government on a point-bypoint basis about this issue, " says McCaughey. "If I'm wrong about anything I'll put my hands up, but don't take cheap shots at me."

It would be easy for detractors to dismiss McCaughey as someone who just likes a good rant. But he has previously, and once again last week, pointed to documents received under the Freedom of Information Act to demonstrate that the government is often unwilling to upset the apple cart.

He cites one example of a request by the Office of Public Works that 25% of all concrete used in its projects should be sourced from a Dublin-based 'eco-friendly' cement maker. The Department of the Environment vetoed that request from the OPW, because it "didn't want to upset voluntary arrangements it already had with existing cement manufacturers", according to the documents McCaughey received.

"It's up to the government to set the highest international standards that it can, " adds McCaughey, who says Ireland is the second-worst polluter in the EU. "It shouldn't be setting the lowest common denominator."

He wonders why, for example, Fingal county council in north Dublin has been able to introduce its own requirements that builders in the council's sphere of influence adhere to far more stringent energy efficient construction methods than the government enforces on a national level.

"We should be following the lead of [British chancellor of the exchequer] Gordon Brown, who has introduced zero stamp duty on houses in the UK that are carbonneutral. That's leadership, " claims McCaughey.

Century Homes and Kingspan are part of a consortium that last year won a UK government competition to design and build 300 affordable timber-framed homes, each at a cost of roughly £60,000.

McCaughey decries Brian Cowen's announcement in December's budget to set aside 270m to buy carbon credits up to 2013, which he says is money that could have been used to invest in hospitals, schools or transport if the government properly addressed carbon reduction and hadn't stalled on introducing measures such as the Building Energy Ratings directive. His analogy: spending that money on credits is akin to buying a mop to solve the problem of a leaky water pipe, rather than replacing the pipe.

"It beggars belief that, rather than showing the rest of the world its environmental credentials and reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the government takes the opposite view that we will continue to pollute because it doesn't want to upset the big boys."

But even though he's irate at the derogation being sought by the government to the new directive, the rules will be introduced regardless by 2009. That means that Century Homes and other timber-frame building firms will be hoping to capture a larger slice of the home construction pie in years to come.

It's clear that the political arena is one in which McCaughey feels very much at home, as the conversation tangentially shifts from energy ratings to Aer Rianta and the Dublin Airport Authority, ESB, drug dealers, traffic police and more. Asked whether he'll run as a PD candidate in the forthcoming election, he says that with his and his wife's baby due in April, he'll be ruling himself out . . . for now, at least.

He's got plenty more to be thinking about. His contract with Kingspan to continue heading Century Homes will expire at the end of this year.

While McCaughey says he'd be interested in staying, he knows the decision lies with the new task masters. It would undoubtedly leave a void in his life, but since nature abhors a vacuum, don't expect him to sit on his laurels for too long. It's likely he already has irons in the fire. It would seem to those who believe in such things that McCaughey's planets have already become perfectly aligned. Now he'll just have to wait for the rest of the cosmos to follow suit.

CV Gerry McCaughey Age: 43 Position: Founder and chief executive, Century Homes (acquired by Kingspan in 2005 for almost 100m) Martial status: Married, expecting "rst child in April Background: McCaughey, born in Dungannon, moved to Monaghan at an early age. He studied at UCD, from which he graduated with a commerce degree. Then travelled to California and returned in 1989 to establish Century Homes. His father, brother, and a family friend were co-founders and backers.

Set up with just £150,000, the timber frame home manufactuer was acquired by Cavan-based Kingspan in 2005 for almost 100m.

In the News: McCaughey is irate about the government's decision to delay the implementation of the EU's Building Energy Rating system, a move which he says will see Ireland continue its role as one of the EU's biggest polluters.

Other activities: Board member of Plato Ireland, a business support network.

Chairman of the Property Registration Authority. Board member of Junior Achievement, which promotes enterprise skills amongst school children.