Mr. Brian O'Mahony:

For areas that are protected, etc., the big challenge is external walls because the external appearance of the home is being changed. In that regard, it applies to many homeowners that they should check with their local authority because it will be able to provide advice to them. The other thing I say to homeowners, and this is from my own experience, if they talk to their local authority when they are thinking about doing external wall insulation or something like that, they will be surprised by the fact that the local authority will know of other homes that have had this done. It will point them out to homeowners, who can then approach that homeowner to find out information. That happened to me in respect of a neighbour. People will find out that somebody else has done it and they can talk to that person and see what the product looks like on the home in a completely unbiased way. Homeowners should definitely talk to their local authority about that. There are historic homes where the internal features might be protected but we are talking about the externals. However, it applies to all homes that homeowners should talk to their local authority. That is what I advise homeowners to do.