Mr. Charles Stanley-Smith:

As Mr. Coghlan has indicated, I had my house deep retrofitted by the Tipperary Energy Agency a couple of years ago. I highly recommend deep retrofitting but one must employ a trusted agency to do the work. Let us remember that houses vary and, therefore, have different requirements. Representatives of the Tipperary Energy Agency approached my wife and me and told us what our house and type of living required. They told us that they would organise the right contractors, which they did, and the contractors were asked for quotes for the work. The agency handled the quotes and grants. One week about 12 people came to house to do different jobs such as fit solar panels and fit the walls. Within one working week the whole job was done. All that my wife and I had to do was to go through a list of options with the Tipperary Energy Agency, identify whether they met our requirements, sign the contract and pay the cheque.

My wife and I were fortunate enough to be able to pay for the work ourselves but there are options available if people require a bank loan. The agency had gone to the local bank and explained to it that if anybody came in, the work was all bona fide stuff and hence it was reasonable and made sense for the bank to grant a loan. I confirm that my wife and I have saved between €1,500 and €2,000 each winter for the past couple of winters. We are very much on track to recoup the cost in about seven or eight years, which is very good. If people want to visit Tipperary, I can show them my house and give a longer introduction.

I want to outline another thing that needs to be done in terms of a national planning framework. What a lot of people do not understand or realise is that it has been estimated that the population in this country will rise by 1 million by 2040. That means there will be more climate change because each person is responsible for a certain amount. Therefore, we must be able to deal with the current population and the estimated rise in the population. I seriously recommend the national planning framework. It is a seriously good idea. As I have said before, I am 95% in agreement with the national planning framework. There is very little in it that I think is wrong. The key thing is that people must live in smaller communities that one does not have to drive to. The problems that are caused at the minute by urban sprawl and people having to drive for hours each day are not just climate change problems but social problems as well. We must change the way we live today and provide support that enables people to live in communities located in towns, villages and cities. Villages are the support lungs of rural Ireland. I live in a village in County Tipperary so I know what it means to the rural area and, therefore, recommend very much that the national planning framework is absolutely followed.

I have a problem with the national development plan, which is that the money meant to support the national planning framework does not always match up. Undoubtedly, there is a requirement to improve the road between Limerick and Cork, but do we need to spend €1 billion on a motorway? Would we not be better off spending €500 million on doing up the road, as it undoubtedly needs work, and then spend the other €500 million on other initiatives to improve life in that area? Why must we have a motorway? Let us have a decent road and spend the other half of the money on supporting that area of Ireland. It is similar elsewhere. We do not need motorways everywhere. By all means, there should be better roads.