Presenter derides modern housing

Television presenter and conservationist Kevin McCloud said much of the housing built in the last decade has been “extremely poor”.

Mr McCloud, the presenter of the long-running Channel Four programme Grand Designs, described the downturn in the construction industry in Ireland as a "huge crushing defeat" but it was necessary in construction to take things slowly.

"There is always that risk in boom times that you race ahead with a view to the future but you never stop to look back," he said.

"It is only when you look back that you get the focus as to where you should be going."

He said it has taken the severe economic downturn to show that too many developers were building a "pile of crap" and treating such houses as a "piece of stock demeans what a home is".

He cited the example of a bungalow in Ireland built in the shadow of a ruined 18th century Georgian house as indicative of an attitude that is "all about tomorrow and not about today".

Mr McCloud was a guest of Coillte today in which they celebrated 10 years of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.

He said the public did not know enough about FSC certification which is the equivalent of organic or free range in food and such certification is not "lightly given".

He praised Coillte for its management of its forests and for its prescience in targeting the UK market after the Irish construction industry collapsed.

The UK now accounts for half of all Irish timber output.

"What we import now is very significantly Irish," he said.

"Nobody was really aware in the UK about this extraordinary resource on our doorstep. Everybody assumes that construction timber comes from Scandinavia but that is not the case."

He said Coillte had turned around a loss-making enterprise in the last 20 years.

"Coillte have really cleverly, by looking at the asset they have, managed it very carefully through the principle of proper forestry management which is by nature sustainable," he said.

Recent figures shows that Ireland was the biggest exporter of medium density fibreboard (MDF) to the UK between 2007 and 2010 after the construction boom in Ireland ended. Their MDF is FSC certified.

Coillte chief executive David Gunning said FSC certification has been instrumental to grow exports of timber to the UK.

In 2010 forest exports were €286 million.