Mr. Seamus Boland:

When 30 or 100 people turn up at some of these events, they are coming from different housing situations. They are asking very simple, straightforward and, sometimes, technical questions. They are asking questions on accessing grants, finance and tradespeople who are available or, in some cases, not. Most of the time, they want straight answers. We have found that some of these events do not have all the answers. That is why I go back to the point about an orchestrated, structured, community presentation, with the right experts, should be de facto in determining. That should be the same in every single county. The SEAI has been given the remit to deliver the one-stop shop. This is not a criticism of the SEAI but it has been given that remit by the Government, and it is important the SEAI is there at every stage.

On housing, housing types, one-off housing and all of that, and many houses have been built in rural Ireland, it must be remembered, as I think the leader of the Green Party said, that Ireland is still 40% rural. Many of those houses are one-off and more are being built. We might want it to be different but those are the facts of the matter. That means we have to come up with bespoke solutions to deal with those one-off houses because, frankly, they are in trouble in being not fit for purpose and costing householders a lot of money. Sadly, the more rural the area, the more likely it is that the population is older and so the money is not there. Most of those houses will be found in that 100,000 figure I offered the committee. We have neglected that. The committee should consider a recommendation to pinpoint those households and even to come up with a different package.

The Senator's final point related to transport. We are very proud of Local Link. We do not run it directly but we very much advocate for it. In fact, it came from an Irish Rural Link idea in the nineties. I will not mention the Minister who thought it might not work and that there was no need for it. We had 40 buses outside Leinster House in 2002 to nail home the point that Local Link, which it is now called, would work. We were proved right. There will always be issues with bus stops. It is an improving service. It is massively changing the lives of people in local areas. In fairness to this and previous Governments, they are making more money available, and I appreciate the work they have done to make Local Link what it is. It has a little bit to go, but it is a much more comprehensive service than it was even five years ago. I thank the Government for that.