Mr. Neil Maloney:

I will answer the second question first. The retrofit will guarantee the existence of flats currently in the complex. The 345 flats will be the subject of a deep retrofit, and that number will remain. We will not be gaining anything; there will just be an investment in the existing flats.

On the question on regeneration, the idea actually came from the residents first, and also through various councils over the years. Senator Chris Andrews pushed for it. We highlighted that the Pearse House flats had not had real, deep investment since the common areas were done back in 2006. We were thinking about bigger homes. A collective complaint went to Europe through Community Action Network, CAN. That highlighted how bad Pearse House was, how much overcrowding was there and the extent of the need for bigger homes. Our hope was that regeneration would result in bigger flats. I envisaged that the exterior would be protected and that the balconies would be broken in to make bigger flats within the complex itself. That was rejected, however, because we were losing homes in the first phase. There was a big panic. I saw additionality as the decanting of the people and additional homes within the area. I refer to the site we have examined here, potentially. The other two sites related to hostels. These are what we should have been considering, and what the Government and the council should have been considering. They should have been saying they identified these sites and should have put a plan in place to get this off the ground.

We have had engagement with the tenants ourselves. We update them. In fairness, Dublin City Council engaged as we went along. We got a roadmap last year and potential new designs until we found out in March what was happening. In fairness, the council has been engaging with us and the tenants. We have not released the deep retrofit details yet. We are holding a meeting next Wednesday at which we will tell people exactly what is being proposed. After that, there will be consultations with Dublin City Council again.