Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Okay, can we maybe examine that proposition a bit further with you, Mr. Doyle, in that we do know, and we knew it then as well, that the construction sector was growing so exponentially that it had grown to nearly one quarter, just under one quarter of the Irish economy? And it was by any measure or means at least twice what it should be by EU norms or considered at a sustainable level, which is in around 10% or 12%; it was up around 24%. So the proposition ... could a counter-proposition to that be - and this is what the question is that I'm testing with you - was the Government, or was it your opinion, a reason that the Government to be very reluctant for measures to cool the property market because there's not a lot of apparent measures there at this time to actually cool the market?

In fact, discussions of earlier today, with Mr. Considine this morning, will show that the taxation measures that were under review were not actually acted upon, they just remained under review between the, kind of, 2003 to 2006 period. So, can I put it to you, if I go onto the next page there, it's two pages in ... and in the top paragraph it gives a sort of relationship between the 10,000 houses volume decline or ... it's the third line down, "a rough rule of thumb is that each 10,000 volume decline in housing output [my Latin isn't great so you might translate that for me later] reduces economic growth by about [one quarter] - 1 percentage point. As a result, employment growth would be around ½- 1 percentage point lower than would otherwise be the case." So there's a correct ... or there's a direct correlation here between the number of houses being built and how it's actually presenting in economic growth and if the production of houses ... and as we know this morning ... there was an overproduction of houses being built at the time as well, that if the ... the roll-out of housing units was reduced, it would have an impact on the headline sum on the economy. And then it ... just to bring you down onto the next paragraph, and it's the ... it's the second line into that and it goes again, "However a broad rule of thumb is that each 10,000 reduction in housing output would reduce revenue by around €500 million", and I presume that that's in annum. So, the question I'm putting to you: did these figures in any way influence or give consideration to the Administration of the day that to take any cooling measure with regard to the property market would have an immediate adverse effect upon the revenue and employment figures, regardless of what the long-term consequences would actually be?