Mr. Robert Watt:

I do not agree with the characterisation of the plan in the context of public transport. There are significant investments planned in BusConnects, the cycleways and the metro. As the Deputy knows, in Dublin it is about the future planning of the city. We have a model of development of unplanned urban sprawl which is not sustainable. It is not sustainable from a congestion or climate perspective. That needs to change. A significant development in recent months is the Land Development Agency whereby the Government sets out its plans to enable much more compact development. A key part of Project Ireland 2040 is that there is alignment between a spatial view, which is a land view, of the country and the capital plan. They are aligned. We can do more and we will see as the plan is being implemented how we can support the objectives of having a much more compact city.

On retrofitting, the plan sets out a significant investment programme, which is a start. It is on its way. We will see. Nobody would underestimate or downplay the enormous challenge we have in retrofitting because 88% of our houses were built before we had the energy rating system in place. We have significant challenges. We have discussed the costs already today of different insulations and options. We will fund it through a mix of tax incentives, tax increases to incentivise people to take the retrofitting, direct Exchequer grants, loan guarantees, low-cost funding and a variety of different options. There is no doubt that as we start the retrofitting programme and see how we are going that we will have to look at other instruments and mechanisms to accelerate the programme.

My view is that Project Ireland 2040 is the right plan in terms of the ambition and types of initiatives. There is a strong focus on compact cities and it is a question of us delivering on that. It is a big change from where we were before.