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

-----for massive speculation in property. Every day in the newspapers, we had developers announcing prestige projects costing billions or hundreds of millions, clattering around the place in their helicopters. And every year from 1996 to 2006 the price of an ordinary home for a first-time buyer increased each year by the average industrial wage.

Young people, in other words, were being pulverised by this and by 35 and 40-year mortgages. So, Mr. Neary, Ireland had obviously become a massive casino economy, fed by bondholders, by speculating and profiteering-----