Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I really appreciate that. As the Minister of State said, this is important on a number of fronts. First, it helps to meet a housing need for different types of family units who need different types of space. Second, it helps to revitalise our towns and increase footfall on the streets. This is not just relevant in the Dún Laoghaire, George's Street area but is such an obvious area to try to target. Third, from a climate perspective it is far more beneficial to intelligently and efficiently use existing stock rather than building new housing, although that is also necessary. It is just inconceivable that as a State we would have vacant and redundant space. I spoke with the architects in Dún Laoghaire about this and about the challenges they face. Clearly the fire escape issue is a difficult one but there are ways of getting around it. The bigger issue is insurance. I urge the Minister of State to have a conversation with the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Fleming, about this because the insurance differential for having commercial space on the ground floor and residential space above seems to be an almost insurmountable difficulty. I would ask that the Minister and the Ministers of State have a discussion with their colleagues in the Department of Finance about this.

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