Mr. John O'Mahony:

Yes. There are three levels of housing for the aged. There is independent living, independent living with care and dependent living. The big problem at present is that we do not have enough one and two bedroom apartments for independent living, let alone for independent living with care. The standard apartments we design and build at present satisfy Part M. They satisfy two ends of the spectrum, the starter home and the downsizer, as long as the downsizer is independent living. However, we do not have enough. There are plenty of family houses that are not adapted for older living but we have a huge shortage of one and two bedroom accommodation which allows for communal living and facilitates the mixed tenure communities one is trying to create. The level after that is how one adapts that type of housing for the housing with care. That is quite easy to do and relatively inexpensive if we apply the current Part M and other regulations. It is when dealing with highly specialised dependent care that there is a need to look at sheltered housing and so forth. Unfortunately, at present, the only example we have of housing for the aged is the sheltered, highly specialised care type. It is the other types that we need to build.