Martin Markey

Well, we like what we're hearing, Clare.

I suppose we will follow up on it and let's hope that it does come to pass.

Because I suppose when we're looking at rural housing, one-off housing as it's also known as, if you go back to 2006, we built 23,000.

And last year we built less than 6,000 and it's been kind of bumping along at the 5,000, 6,000 for the last 10 years, I suppose.

Yes.

Now, if it hadn't kept pace with population growth since 2006, we'd now be building 33,000 one-off rural houses.

Well, if you look at, for example, one-off houses at the moment in 2026, effectively a new-built house is the best-built house in history.

Likewise, from an environmentally viewpoint, it's the most environmentally friendly house in history.

So I don't know if that argument stacks up.

I think it's a little bit past its sell-by date at this point, as well as that.

For example, if you look at the societal changes since even before COVID, before COVID we had about one third of a million people working from home.

Now it's nearly a million people working from home.

And likewise, if we're looking at transport, if we're looking at cars, last year newly bought cars, 56% were either fully electric or hybrids.

So many of those arguments in terms of environmentally friendliness have kind of gone by the wayside.

Yes, well, I suppose if we look at Hardware Association Ireland, our members supply all the building materials that go into a house.

So, and it accounts for perhaps about 80% of their business.

So, consequently, what happens in housing or what doesn't happen in housing is of real significance to us and our members.

And I suppose about three years ago we started, or four years ago, we started looking at providing solutions as best we could, practical solutions to the housing crisis.

So,

Four years ago, we produced the report into empty or vacant homes.