Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegation from the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, for their attendance. While I wish to zero in on a couple of points, I have a follow-on question on housing. While Professor Barrett stated "do no harm", there is harm there and Dr. McQuinn has zeroed in on the current state of the private side with spiralling rents affecting competitiveness and our ability to attract inward investment, as well as a major supply issue. People are struggling to get together a deposit under the new rules but the ESRI's strong suggestion is to not do anything in the budget because of its fear that it may lead to price increases on the private side. What kind of words of comfort can Dr. McQuinn offer to people who are struggling to put together a deposit? As they may be people who might need to consider social housing if they are unable to get a deposit, there is something of a vicious circle going on there. Second, I refer to supply and the necessity to get that supply quickly in respect of social housing. I am conscious the ESRI has produced a report with the rather grandiose title, "An empirical assessment of macroprudential measures in the Irish housing and credit markets". Will Dr. McQuinn provide members with a flavour of that report as to how it may address the supply issue in the context of social housing?