Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy raised that and I meant to respond. That is being assessed. As he knows there is a very stringent standard procedure to be followed to get certification for use. In most European countries CLT is being used. We are restricted to a certain height with what we can use. I recently received a presentation on CLT. I have asked my officials to work with the National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI, to try to expedite that. It is better for our environment. It is more efficient. It is used elsewhere. We can see multistorey blocks being built using CLT and I would like us to do that.

The certification process is obviously independent of me. That needs to be done, but it is in train. That is included in the review of fire safety regulations, which particularly focuses on the use of existing above-shop stock. I hope to be able to introduce that before the end of the year. A stakeholder group has been meeting for more than 12 months. I expect the draft to come to me shortly. Obviously, the committee will have input into that. That will also be put out for public consultation. It can clarify what can be done and look for improvements in that space, particularly when using vacant stock or above-shop units and how those conversions within cities can happen. The work on that is coming to conclusion. It is a very important piece of work.

We have been trying to address the issue of vacancy. Some local authorities are doing it very well through repair and lease, buy and renew. We have the Croí Cónaithe vacancy grant which has received considerable interest.

We have already had a great deal of interest in it and received hundreds of applications. The purpose of it is to help homeowners to take vacant units back into stock. We have expanded the programme to include bringing units back not only into our towns and villages but also our cities and rural areas. The best homes we can use from a climate and carbon perspective are those that exist already.