John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Is everybody happy? Before we conclude, the witnesses mentioned the report next week. I would be very much obliged if they could forward it to the committee. The cost of housing and the component elements have been significant issues at previous meetings. One of our concerns is not just the cost now. The witnesses indicated that tenders and contract prices are going up yet previous speakers told this committee that if one was building on a bigger scale, there would be economies of scale in terms of materials. Coming from a relatively low construction base, we would not like to take it as given that prices should go up way ahead of the rate of inflation. That is why we are trying to find out what the labour component is - segregating the labour component from the material component. I understand development levies and VAT. We are looking at each section so that is what we are trying to get behind in terms of the witnesses' written response to the committee rather than taking it that construction inflation of 5% or anything like that is a given. It would be very worrying if that was the case. This is why we are trying to get a breakdown of the various components.