Ms Patricia Byron:

We would be delighted to take the members' questions. To summarise the headings, we feel the system is broken. We believe the Government should have a Minister who will look after the whole area of infrastructure, land, construction, the financial model, market data and something that is scalable. Obviously, we need to build for what we need and the pipeline, no more than any other pipeline, needs to have foresight and sustainability. That would come within the Department allocated to draw these pieces together.

On availability of finance, the local authorities should bring together the infrastructure investment, and ahead of time rather than after the houses are half built. My colleagues mentioned reducing the VAT and streamlining the planning process.

On the rental sector, while there is a dialogue that seems to be along the line that if we go in the direction of rental, it will solve all our problems, as in many areas, there must be balance in that space. Much of the wealth of this country has been built up as people buy and save for their houses over 20 years, at which time they own them, their income stream has come down and that looks after them in their old age. If people do not invest in their houses, there will be another problem for the State in the long term. While we look at a sustainable and regulated rental sector, there must be balance included in that piece.