Loves

Cooking - It's what I do to relax at the moment. Over the last couple of years I started cooking a lot at home. I love now when I take the whole day to cook, like a family dinner or Christmas dinner – it allows you to forget work for a little while. I like Neven Maguire. I use the Avoca Café cookbook quite a bit and Domini Kemp always does good recipes.

Small, dingy pubs - I love the real old Dublin pubs that are dark all year round. You can sit yourself in a corner and lose yourself. I'm not interested in big super pubs or any of that scene but I do like the Stag's Head, the Long Hall, places like that and especially ones down the country.

Architecture - I would tend to spend an awful lot of time visiting other people's work and when you see something that's really inspiring, the hairs on the back of my neck really stand up. When I see a really good design it just makes me realise exactly why I got into the whole thing – it just makes you feel good about yourself.

Comedy - I love comedy clubs and comedy programmes, especially Maeve Higgins and the fact that she can keep a straight face the whole way through it. She's my favourite at the moment and she's one of the best Irish comics around.

Road trips - Before the children arrived, my wife and I always used to do a road trip every year where we used to book a flight to one airport and out of another. We've done Italy, California… One year we did 2,000km and we spent three weeks doing it and we had the best holiday ever. We planned it day by day, we'd be lying on a beach and not know where we were staying that night. There's nothing like the feel and the freedom of being able to go wherever you want. Those days are gone but they will come back.

Loathes

Garage food - You know that really crispy lettuce that stays crispy after 10 days? I spend so much time in my car that I would just love if somebody in Ireland would open a takeaway place where you could pull in and get a decent sandwich on the motorway. There are two Avoca cafés, one in Kilmacanogue and one in Rathcoole but other than that there are very few places to get a decent sandwich.

Slippers - I absolutely hate them. I've never owned a pair and I hate when my wife wears them and I hate when my kids wear them. They look like something that cave people wore. I'd prefer if they wore runners. I just have this thing about slippers and I especially hate Ugg boots. They're the most unflattering thing anyone can wear. But that's just my gripe.

Deadlines - I hate working to them. I've never been able to handle them. I work in television so they're unavoidable but I've always just struggled with them. I make them, I always make them but some people love deadlines and relish the project management and the organisational aspect whereas I'm one of these people who leave things to the last minute and am just 'get this done'.

Labels - I think if something is really well designed, it doesn't matter how much it costs and I don't get it when people buy something and then tell you what label it is.

Bad driving - It's because I spend so much time in the car. I get infuriated with people driving slowly, people driving in the wrong lane and Irish people don't know how to do roundabouts. They're always in the wrong lane when they're going right. I think I'm a good driver but then no one thinks they're a bad driver. Touch wood, I've never had an accident.

Room to Improve is on Wednesday, RTÉ One, 8.30pm