Mr. Feargal ? Coigligh:

On cost, one issue that is probably not appreciated by the public is that the building of apartments is more expensive per unit than the building of individual houses because apartments need services, fire safety, lifts, common spaces and so on. We need apartments, especially in our urban cores and around transport hubs. However, they are more costly. It is necessary to consider the costs of construction and finance, that planning delays have been costly and perhaps the labour force. Those issues require a whole range of actions to try to ensure units can be built at a lower cost so that the gap the State is being asked to fill in schemes such Project Tosaigh is lower. These are also long-term and challenging issues. For example, Ms Timmons mentioned a study we will be publishing shortly by consultants who also did other work for us on the cost of construction, comparing how much it costs to put a brick on top of a brick in Dublin versus Copenhagen. Interestingly, it is not very different but the types of apartments we sell in Dublin have a much higher spec than the types of apartments sold in Copenhagen. There is a cultural and societal issue there. Cost can be taken out but not everyone will be happy with that.