Mr. Hubert Fitzpatrick:

In many parts of the country, sales prices for existing stock are far below replacement cost.

Houses in many parts of the country can be bought at the moment for, perhaps, 60% to 70% of the build cost of those units. That is a major problem because it is not viable to secure finance to build any units in those areas. Clearly that issue has to be addressed.

In regard to Deputy O'Dowd's suggestion about the various infill sites, there is significant scope for rejuvenating those particular sites. There may be some constraints to developing those sites and there may be issues in respect of building regulations that pertain to living over the shop areas and so on. We suggest that the building regulations be looked at to see whether they can be tweaked to ensure that development can be made viable and, at the same time, to ensure buildings that are fit for purpose and satisfy all needs are being built.

The regional nature of the market cannot be over-emphasised. Some development is taking place in Dublin and Cork and a little in Galway. After that it is very sparse. The industry wants to build houses but if the costs are higher than sales prices, it is just not viable to do it.