Mr. Charlie McCreevy:

Well, Deputy, it was the market that decided the price of that particular piece of land, together with all other pieces of land as well. It was the market ... in the ... I know Deputy Higgins doesn't accept the principles of the free market. He has another view, which I have always respected. I don't ... I am a free marketeer and I make no secret about it. It was the market that decided those particular issues. I certainly ... but I want to tell you the modus vivendiof all Government initiatives in the housing area and all these other matters was to increase supply in the belief - mistaken as you might contend it was - that the more supply that we put in place, that the price of housing would stabilise and come down. And if you go back and see all of the studies from '97 onwards predicting what the proper number of houses that would be completed the following year and what was the proper number to take account of the population of the country, they were understating it by zillions. Like, there was ... I think the number of units completed in the last year before the crash was something like 90,000 or whatever. But you would have thought a long time earlier - due to the measures we put in place to increase supply - that some sync would have occurred between the price of property ... the price of housing and the market would take account of that, which would've allowed the people that you represent get their foot in the housing ladder.