Ms Mindy O'Brien:

On the sharing economy, there is great potential. We trialled a library of things four years ago with the Dublin Food Co-op for its reuse month, so it was only for a month. We had anything from knitting needles onwards but, because of insurance liability issues, we could not have any electrical goods, which was a real lost opportunity.

I agree with the Senator. The problem we had is that people had to drive quite a distance to go to the library of things. I would like to have an online mapping exercise. I always thought it would be a great app if I knew, in my estate, who had a ladder, who had wheelbarrow or who had a tool, and I could go to No. 24 and get a drill or go to No. 15 to get a ladder, and we could share items within the community. I was thinking about going door-to-door to try to track it. That would be wonderful and the question is whether people will use it. A platform called Trello tried to do an online version but that was for money. This can also be linked in with the civic amenities sites and there could be a sharing tool library, or it could even be linked to the actual libraries. For example, could libraries be extended to not only lend out books but to lend out other items as well?

It all comes down to liability insurance for electrical items. Liability seems to be an issue throughout the circular economy, from the donation of food to reuse and repair. We need to do something about liability and that is the one area I want to emphasise.

In terms of rainwater harvesting, I used to sit on the water forum and this was a big issue for some of the folks. It should become part of the building requirements, and building regulations should include rainwater harvesting. We need to become more future-proofed because we just do not know what is going to happen. Places are going to get drier, in particular Dublin. I have two water butts in my back garden. It would be a lot easier if that was incorporated into building systems. In addition, for new builds, in regard to using rainwater for non-potable uses, such as washing clothes and toilets, it is much easier to build that in when the house is being built, rather than trying to retrofit it later. In drier areas, that definitely might be something to look into.