Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Unfortunately, we are caught for time. Mr. Buti said it was considered that the Irish housing market was a healthy market. However, in a briefing document from our researchers we read that in a number of years during the housing boom the increase in the value of the average home was larger than the amount of money a worker on the average industrial wage would take home over the full year.

The research further found that over a ten-year period, from 1996 to 2006, the price of an average home for a working person increased by the equivalent of the average industrial wage each year for ten years. It states that the increase in house prices created significant opportunities for investors to make large profits in housing development. Does that look like a health housing market situation when young working people are the subject of such profiteering? Was that not seen by the EU Commission during that period as well because it was flagged here in Ireland?