Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----before it comes onto site. It is modular but it also impacts on how things are designed and the methods with which that is done and the materials used. Ultimately, this is about building more sustainable homes that are much more efficient in terms of energy and heat, and building them faster and at lower cost in a way that perhaps does not need as many people on site as the construction sector struggles to get the labour force it needs to build at the pace we need. There are multiple benefits to this from a sustainability, delivery time, cost and skills point of view. If that involves 3-D printing for elements of it, I am open to that as long as we use materials that make sense from a carbon footprint perspective. I understand there is quite a big difference between low-carbon concrete and the more conventional concrete we are used to, but the processes for making it are also very different. We cannot simply flip a switch and ask the concrete industry to change overnight without tens if not hundreds of millions of euro of investment to do that. That is why we now have four universities looking at the area of more innovative ways of construction that it is hoped will also be much more sustainable.