Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy for his question on the historic structures fund. I would love to double the fund as it has been hugely impactful. We have a number of funds. We have the built heritage investment scheme and we support the Heritage Council's delivery of the historic towns initiative. What we get out of those funds is not just the retrofit of individual buildings but perhaps even streetscapes. We can get a positive contagion in the town whereby we see other premises are brought up to a higher standard and up to a good conservation standard as well.

I was in Dún Laoghaire on Monday and the CEO showed me a wonderful project supported by our Department at the old harbourmaster cottages. That is the type of project we want to see being replicated across the country. It is adaptive reuse and the fact there is social housing going in there means it is a great exemplar of the type of project we want to support. There is the embodied carbon issue, that is to say, the greenest building is the one that already exists. It makes a huge difference.

Yesterday, the Minister and I announced an additional grant scheme for conservation advice of €7,500 for people who want to restore traditional farmhouses. That is also to be welcomed. We want to do that in a conservation-led way. We have a scheme there for the roll-out of additional architectural conservation officers. We will soon publish guidance on energy efficiency in traditional buildings, because they perform differently. They need breathability and to use natural materials. There have been some very inappropriate interventions and we see them across the country. They can have a really detrimental impact on the fabric of the building. These measures combined bring us into a better space. I mention also that the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications and the SEAI have a grant scheme of up to 50% for existing housing retrofit. We are starting to see many really good projects taking off across the country.