Professor Patrick Honohan:

We are not attempting social engineering or to change society into one in which there will be less home ownership. That would not in any way be part of our mandate. The side effects of some of our actions could be offset by other policies. One can argue that there should be joined-up policy across the board, but we cannot necessarily wait for joined-up policy if we have a mandate from the Oireachtas to maintain financial stability. That is what the Central Bank does. In the past six years the availability of mortgages has been extremely constrained and limited. We have not been in a situation before where, steadily, the new generation has not been able to get mortgages. That new generation simply has not been able to get them and there has been a large shift to the rental market. We should not exaggerate the degree to which a policy of this kind will alter the current situation as distinct from the one in the past.