Professor Philip Lane:

We have to think about the regime as having two instruments. The first is the loan to income ratio, which we did not touch. At three and a half times income, the loan limit is quite restrictive. For example, in the United Kingdom, the corresponding figure is four and a half times income. That is the anchor or core of the scheme.

The second instrument relates to deposits. Last November, we published the evidence surrounding what we did. There are two reasons for it. The first is for simplicity. As Deputy O'Donnell indicated, we had a scheme with a turning point of €220,000. If that had persisted, every year we would have to move the number because €220,000 was the median house price for first-time buyer price in 2012.