Ms Marie Donnelly:

Yes, it is off balance sheet and that is a major issue. That is another area for the public sector to look at to see how it can best be used.

For new homes, Ireland is talking about building 600,000 new units, which would amount to one quarter of our stock. That is why I emphasised building regulations. Let us get this right. While it may be a little more expensive, it is much less expensive to do it now than to try to retrofit afterwards.

Let us make our building regulations future proof and get them right for the new builds that are coming down the track.

There is an issue with retrofit. I looked at the BER ratings across the country. In Dublin and its surrounding counties and in Cork approximately 20% of buildings are A-B rated. It is 10% in the rest of the country. There is an obvious reason for that. In Dublin the average cost of a house is approximately €500,000 so while an investment of €30,000 is a lot, it is against €500,000. If one's house is worth €250,000, which it might be in country areas, €30,000 is a much bigger investment. One can see how the economics work in terms of the asset value. That is why we must link the sale price of a house to the BER rating, so people can see that their asset will retain value in a recession and will have increased value once they have done this, not to mention that the operational costs will be cheaper.