Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I operated on a practical level in that world for many years. It is simple. If the house is overpriced, if the loan-to-value ratio is too high and-or the times earnings is too high, the risks are too high. If one is derisking the purchase of property down to 20%, one will get to a point where one takes out the risk of negative equity, however, I think people aspire to own their own homes. The question we have not addressed is the supply side. How can we get a system in place that the price of houses does not go out of control. We have lost control of our interest rates, the Central Bank does not have control over interest rates. We are talking about the crude instrument of 20% deposit, but I think there is more to the issue than that.