Mr. Declan Meally:

It is a work in progress. We do have any of the details on some of the ongoing discussions. That will be part of the work over this year and over the next couple of months in talking it through. I do not have the visibility below that. As I said, we are feeding in on how we would work through it. They will be allocated their budget and will have to work to that. Is it a five-year budget? Is it a three-year budget? Those kinds of things obviously have to be worked out. Is it by the overall sector or is it by individual organisation? Those things will be worked out generally. In the public sector I think it will be one budget overall. Then it will be divvied out over time. However, it is a work in progress, so I do not have any more detail than that.

Regarding the Deputy’s next part on the opportunities around cement and concrete, there are a number of opportunities. There is low-emissions cement and lower-emissions cement. These can be considered in specific construction areas. There are also case studies where there could be too much cement used. There may be better ways and tighter specifications on cement and concrete being used there. This goes back to the education of those who are creating specifications through green procurement, and for procurement that sets out those parameters. As the Deputy said, in some cases, there is an opportunity where a lower-emissions cement can be used, because of the opportunities around it. There could be brittleness, etc. There are different characteristics. However, there is no doubt that it can be brought into the procurement piece and specifically specified in respect of new buildings. However, again, our piece will still be to push for as much retrofit as possible.

The Deputy talks about the use of timber in promoting the modern methods of construction. A group has been chaired and brought together under the Department of Expenditure and Reform-----