Mr. Jean-Pierre Schweitzer:

I will answer that quickly. The examples I gave about the sale of goods directive and the role of the competition authorities could be interesting to explore. I cannot think of other examples off the top of my head but I will try to come back to the Senator on that.

On the point about the sharing economy, I agree there is a lot of potential. Personally, I use a tool library in Belgium, which gives me access to an amazing array of tools at very low cost. I use it maybe once a year so it does not make sense for me to own any of them. That is a great initiative. However, there are also bad examples of the sharing economy and we should not just assume that the sharing economy is always more resource efficient. If we think about Airbnb, for example, it has given people access to spaces all over the world for a low cost, it has encouraged tourism on a scale that many of us have benefited from and enjoyed, but it is also had a material impact. If we think about scooters, and I am sure there are some in cities in Ireland, all of the studies I have seen have said they have very short lives, they are unrepairable and the batteries are not necessarily replaced and not always recycled. They are also serviced by people with very poor contract conditions and low wages. We cannot make the assumption that the sharing economy, especially when it is on a platform basis, will necessarily result in resource savings. Yes, there is a lot of potential but it needs to be under the right conditions.

I do not have a comment on rainwater harvesting, which is not my area.