Mr. Ciar?n O'Connor:

In one of the Länder, or federal states, in Germany, a three-year trial has been introduced requiring builders to state why they are knocking buildings and the carbon implications. They must also state the embodied carbon of the building and its lifespan carbon. The trial is for three years. If it works, it will be rolled out in the federal republic. If it happens in the federal republic, it always rolls its way into Brussels.

It is only a matter of time. In Ireland, we need to prepare ourselves rather than struggling to manage it when it suddenly happens. There are many things on which we have to advance on a broad front and that is one of them. We will see the result of the first year in Germany this summer. We will see how it is working for Germany and how that might translate through European directives. That is probably the way it will come to Ireland.