Mr. P.J. Ryan:

On the question about the decisions the EPA is making, it has made one on site-won asphalt. It has taken a national decision on that, which will speed up the process of getting those decisions approved. It used to be on a case-by-case basis, which made the process of going through the EPA a lot slower, but it is much quicker now. That will hopefully drive more of that site-won asphalt to be reused.

Following on from that, Mr. Fitzpatrick mentioned the national greenfield soil and stone decision. Up to now, that was on a case-by-case basis. The volume of applications was such that it was taking too long to process them. Again, that national decision will hopefully speed up that whole process by delegating that decision-making piece to local authorities. That will hopefully take a huge chunk of soil and stone, which was being treated as waste. Now, it is an article 27 by-product.

On the issue of concrete, other countries in Europe allow one to take crushed concrete and bring it back into the cement industry and the concrete process. Our local standard here does not allow us to do that yet, but we are hoping to work with industry, the Irish Concrete Federation, ICF, and other standards agencies. We hope to get that through in the next year, so we will also be able to start taking concrete. It will have to meet particular standards, obviously. If there is heavy metal contamination in the concrete, you might not be able to do that. Yet, you will hopefully be able to start seeing more circularity and that will hopefully displace the ordinary portland cement, OPC, which is heavy on carbon. Hopefully, this will start to make it more sustainable.