Mr. Declan Meally:

The Deputy made several points but the fundamental one is that the world is in trouble. That is evident from the report to which he referred that was published today. I refer to there being three years in terms of whether we do something in respect of moving. We have to fundamentally rethink how we live and operate and how we use energy across the board, including how we heat our homes, move around and generate electricity. We have reached a point where we have to put every shoulder to the wheel to understand how we are actually going to do this.

I am totally behind what the Deputy has said in respect of vacant properties and using town centres. Having people living in town centres brings life in those communities and cuts down on people's need to use cars to move around as they can walk to schools and all that. It will not happen overnight but we now know clearly that we are running out of time for what we need to do. We cannot just keep doing things the way we have been doing them. I totally agree with the points made by the Deputy. Everybody, including local authorities and others, will have to start thinking together and joining the dots. As he stated, there should be no double-jobbing. We should not be looking at creating urban sprawl and building more out further so that more cars are needed and services have to be run to those places. We have to change our thinking right across the board. There is a significant opportunity, in the context of embodied carbon if nothing else, to get people living in towns and villages, particularly with the advent of working from home.

That is a fundamental opportunity. It will challenge our thinking in the context of those who want a house on their own plot out in the countryside. We will have to rethink what we are doing.