Mr. Ciar?n O'Connor:

It is a good point to pick up on. It is the cross-laminated timber, CLT, which is the timber that allows us to build high, for instance, 11- or 12-storey buildings in London, 18 stories in Sweden and the same in Vienna. Those countries have used CLT, which is very fine bits of timber glued together. It can span up to 20 m and sometimes up to 30 m so it can give huge spans. For us, its problem is twofold: there is nobody making CLT in Ireland and we only need about three plants in Europe to cover the whole European market. The Finns have that fairly well cornered at present. That will spread, but CLT gives rise to being able to do high-rise building.

What holds that back are the fire issues, such as those in Grenfell Tower and others, and how we protect against them. Very recently, the Australians have decided they want that type of building to happen under two conditions. One is that a sprinkler system is brought into the building, which adds significant cost, or the building is clad with a fireproof material in front of that timber. In Sweden and Norway that was not required, rather, a painted finish was required to be put on to achieve that. In Ireland, however, there tends not to be enthusiasm for what people see as temporary application of a fire retardant because after about eight to ten years, it is supposed to be reapplied.