Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 15 July 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Nexus Phase

Mr. Dermot McCarthy:

My recollection is that it did refer to the degree of concentration. In fact, I believe it cited the financial stability reports that Senator D'Arcy was referring to earlier. It ... as I recall, it did anticipate, as, indeed, did the Department of Finance, that there would be a reduction in the level of housing output. It looked at issues like the potential impact of land hoarding on the price of land and, thereby, the price of houses. It's broad conclusion was that, if you like, the economic rent that was extracted through the capitalisation of reduced interest rates on the price of housing had largely worked out of the system because the ... by that time there was an easing, at least at that time, there was an easing in house prices, and there ... the analysis suggested that, while there had been this very significant output of housing, that there were still very substantial unmet needs, in the greater Dublin area in particular, and for people on low to modest incomes, and they recommended that over time the level of provision of social housing, and a more effective set of supports to the private rented sector, should support housing output as the private demand attenuated. So, I think that was the broad analysis. It wasn't forecasting a collapse, the hard landing, it-----

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