Mr. Paul Lemass:

On the retrofitting, the target for housing across the whole country is 500,000 out to 2030.

Within that, local authority housing equates to approximately 7% of that housing stock and it was a pro rataallocation to the sector to say that local authorities would shoulder their equivalent proportion. As that proportion has been front-loaded, the overall proportion of retrofitting is greater in social housing than in the broader housing stable in the early years. We are something of a pathfinder and a capacity development enabler by virtue of taking on a greater proportion in the early years. Between 2013 and now there have been 73,000 shallow retrofits completed at a cost of €161 million. It is not that the remainder of the stock has been untouched. There is the potential to do further work post 2030, but the target to 2030 is 36,500. Incidentally, that is based on 100% Exchequer funding.

On the question of a temporary stay on demolition, we are looking through the national planning framework and in Housing for All to achieve compact urban growth. That requires us to work with brownfield and infill sites and that, in turn, requires demolition from time to time. In Housing for All, housing policy objective 23, namely, "Drive economic sustainability and reduce Construction Costs", relates specifically to construction and demolition waste reduction and the change in the designation for end of waste, which speaks to the circular economy and the reuse and segregation of demolition waste so it is no longer waste for landfill but is reused as part of the construction process. That is the direction of travel we are working in.