Dr. Ronan Lyons:

On the first question, regarding exact limits and loan to value ratios, I agree with Mr. Brendan Burgess that 20% is the right amount but this should not be done overnight. A gradual increase from 15% to 20% would be better. We can talk about loan to income ratios in more detail if that would be of use but I do not think they are necessary once one has a loan to value ratio. I think loan to income ratios can do more damage. If the average house in Dublin is worth €400,000 and the average house outside Dublin is worth less than €200,000 the loan to income ratio could be binding in Dublin and not in the rest of the country, in which case it would have no impact outside Dublin. If it was binding outside Dublin one can only imagine the havoc it would wreak in the Dublin market, unless one would prefer a situation where only people with twice the average income can buy in Dublin. Loan to value is sufficient and loan to income can make matters worse, rather than better.

The question was raised as to whether deposit schemes increase supply. I may have misspoken earlier as I think deposit schemes increase supply in the most dangerous way possible. Quantities may be increased but this can only be done by first increasing the price and increasing the price of homes by giving more credit is the last thing we should do. If prices and costs are at a certain level one may approach the matter in two ways: one can increase prices, which is dangerous, or one can push costs down and this is a far healthier approach. If the Government chooses to simply give more credit it will have failed to grasp the nettle of the cost of building family homes compared to incomes.

On credit inequality, the reason we accept rent payments that are higher than mortgage repayments is mortgages are basically potential weapons of financial destruction - we in Ireland, of all places, must not forget that. Ask a person with negative equity of over €100,000 whether he or she would have liked consumer protection ten years ago and that person will answer "yes". People are not as financially literate as we would like to think and they need consumer protection.

On communal facilities, the only reason we have units from the 1990s and early 2000s is tax breaks. If the market was asked to provide units it would provide a very different kind of unit. Communal facilities are part of this and in the US developers are now building units for families.