Mr. Patrick Davitt:

I and most auctioneers believe that if all the properties the banks hold at the moment are put on the market, property will find its own level and properties will be sold regardless of whether one is in Roscommon or Dublin. If there are many properties in Roscommon and they have to be sold at €30,000 or €50,000, there is a value for those properties and we believe there are people out there to buy them. Until such time as those properties are put on the market, the property market will never get to a level where it is an actual property market we are looking at. At the moment, NAMA and the banks are holding off so many properties and we hear about all these buy-to-let properties that are not being put up for sale because they are afraid they will flood the market. We do not believe as auctioneers that this will flood the market. We believe that those properties would be sold if they were put on the market. They should be put there and sold and after that, we should see where the property market is in building properties and rebuilding new properties to see where we go from there. We do not see any point in agencies like NAMA holding these properties and NAMA selling massive amounts of properties to international buyers who, in turn, will sell them to Irish people two or three years down the line and inflate the price of the properties. We do not see any reason for that. We believe the properties are there for Irish people to own and should be sold to Irish people. I am sorry for using the example of Roscommon but if somebody was to buy a house there for €30,000 or €40,000 because that is the market price today, so be it. That is what should happen and they should be able to buy it at that price. Auctioneers are not into running up the price of properties. We are into selling them. That is the only way we get paid.