Mr. Ciar?n Nugent:

To follow on quickly, it is related, obviously, to the cost-of-living issues. Housing is the elephant in the room. The living wage has taken such a jump this year. This year it is inflation but for the past six or seven years, it has always been housing. Housing is the biggest chunk. This is the role of the State in entering markets to bring down costs. It is the same with retrofitting.

I wrote a paper for Nevin Economic Research Institute advocating for that and for the State to intervene and employ retrofitters. It should employ young people in good apprenticeships with a good horizon on their career and guarantee employment. It should just do it. The private sector can come in as well and learn from that.

Young people now could, in ten years time, split off and have their own private companies. It would bring down the cost of everything relatively quickly. The skills needed to retrofit a house is a relatively quick apprenticeship. There are a few different ones but generally speaking, it would not take all that much time to ramp up with a bit of ambition and a view to doing it.