Mr. Pat Montague:

We are not. In my view, one problem in policy circles in Ireland is that our default tends to be to look at examples from Anglophone countries. In this case, continental Europe is where I would be looking to - the likes of France, the Netherlands and Germany where, interestingly, they have very low rates of apartment defects compared to Ireland. This is partly because they have very different regimes with regard to holding builders and developers to account and stuff like different forms of contract.

I certainly think we should look at the experience in continental Europe where, let us be clear, apartment living in towns and cities is the norm. We need to look there for example rather than to other anglophone countries necessarily. To be frank, the UK is having huge problems. Its attempts to deal with defects are horrendous because it is tenants who are still ending up paying for this; the state is only paying for some of it. I would not look to the UK as a good exemplar. Countries such as France, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark or even Austria are ones I would look to more than anglophone countries. That is my view on it.