Mr. Pat Doyle:

I thank the Chairman. I am glad he brought it up. I will keep it to ten minutes.

We have developed a particular skill, I suppose, in the Peter McVerry Trust, as have other members. The Sophia Housing Association is doing some work in this area as well. I have to speak for other members too. We have developed a particular skill in relation to derelict and second-hand properties and commercial buildings and the transfer of them. There are many challenges in it, but the benefits, for example, are that one is reusing existing resources and they have 80% less impact on the carbon footprint than going to a greenfield site and starting again. It is like the old recycling model of reduce, reuse, recycle. There are great benefits there.

There are other benefits because many of these buildings are central to towns and villages the length and breadth of the country. Kilbeggan, for example, could barely support the commerce in the town but, under the planning laws a number of years ago when they were building new residential units at the edge of the town, the ground floor needed to be commercial. We were able to apply to take five disused shop units - in fact, they had never been used in that development - and turn them into nine one-bedroom apartments. They were able to be done, affordably, quickly and simply within planning. The challenge was to identify them and get a hold of them and in the preparation of the work because one is looking at fire exits, disability access, etc.

Going up to two-storey buildings, that is fairly doable as well. For example, we have taken a number of old banks and old, two-storey monasteries. We have taken a number of old schools where there was amalgamation of, maybe, three schools in an area and there was an old school. We were able to convert them. We currently have four pubs in four different counties that will bring in 18 units. It is small in terms of the numbers the Chairman is talking about, but those will never go back to being pubs. It is good for the environment and good for the town. It is breathing life back into the town and gets rid of dereliction. In one of the towns, this was a landmark building and every child passed this dereliction on the way to school every day. Now it will be social housing and homes for families.