Mr. Mark Carlin:

I will come in on the Deputy's question regarding how to accelerate low-carbon technologies and the use of timber. We are hearing two things today, namely, the necessity to build houses as quickly as we can but in a sustainable low-carbon way. I agree fully that the culture in Ireland is to build using more traditional methods. That is something we have to look at in terms of education and promotion. We also need to look at regulation. There are limitations in Irish legislation that limit what we can do, especially as regards building with wood, which are not seen throughout Europe.

It is also very important that we are able to demonstrate what we can do. We tried to do that in Avondale because there were many perception issues, including that engineered wood products could not be created using Irish timber from spruce and pine. We set out to prove we could and we did that. It is about demonstration. As the Deputy said, timber frame has been around a very long time but does not seem to be getting the cut-through. Again, we need to demonstrate that potential by looking at some of our public housing schemes to show that it can be done. We can see that it can be done a lot quicker. Some 25% of the time is saved by means of off-site construction. It is a lot cleaner and there is less waste.

Demonstration is another aspect.

Technical standards and training will be important for the people, particularly architects and specifiers - people who make the decisions on what materials to use. That will be important. I agree with the Deputy on the promotion of low carbon, in particular by looking at the embodied carbon and measuring that when making decisions, especially on green procurement.

The Deputy’s other question was on timber frame. We are currently at around 25%. We need to increase that figure and we should be able to do so. It is an open goal for us to increase it to 80%. Mr. O’Toole may wish to comment on what we can do in that area.