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

In the course of the ten years between 1996 and 2006, our researchers have told us, based on hard facts, that the price of a home for an ordinary person increased by the equivalent of the average industrial wage each year for ten years. It finished up at 11 times the average industrial wage, when the normal value was considered to be two and half to four times that amount.

Professor Ahearne said it was difficult for the Government to intervene in the bubble while this stuff was happening, with policies such as income tax increases and loan-to-value ratio adjustments. There was also what many people would call an incredible, breathtaking, increase in house prices. What about radical policies to outlaw profiteering in building land and housing, which many felt was underpinning what went on?