Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am present in Leinster House. I thank Ms Hegarty and Mr. Jones for attending our meeting this morning. I have read their statements with interest. We have had an interesting discussion, yet part of me believes it is one we should have had months ago. We very much feel we are facing the final furlong of the Covid crisis. Maybe the witnesses share this view. Covid will still be here after the crisis but we feel we are in the final stage of getting people vaccinated and restoring normality to the country. The discussion we are having today would probably have been very much worthwhile last autumn or early last winter when people were more inclined to be indoors and we were facing the peak Covid period.

I have several points for the witnesses.

Their statements have convinced me. Ventilation is something I was interested in anyway. Is some of what they are saying at odds with a policy direction that the Government has pursued in recent years, namely, retrofitting homes and building energy rating, BER, certification? There is a rush among anyone who wants to sell a house at the moment to get to a C, a B or, better again, an A grade and there are incentives to those building homes to put in mitigating measures such as insulation etc. One now sees very few homes with chimneys, which traditionally were the source of ventilation in Ireland before the more modern systems, as they created updrafts. In my house, if the fire is lighting the sitting room door will slam in because of the updraft it creates. That is not a feature in many Irish homes being built nowadays and it certainly is not a feature in apartments. I will put that question to Mr. Jones, as it is the kind of technology he deals with.