John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I always enjoy listening to the Minister. It was good to hear him respond in such a feisty and robust form. Since I returned to the meeting in the past 30 minutes or so, there has been a heavy emphasis on nostalgic events and recalling of events.

I have three questions that will not take up too much time. I thank the Minister and his officials for their attendance. Memories and events of the past have been mentioned. Who can forget them? One of the criticisms of the Fianna Fáil Administration in the run up to the crisis, and the same criticism was made in the period immediately after the crash, was that the Government did not heed various advices that had been issued or the wisdom of august bodies. We delved to see what the advices were.

The only person offering advice on events leading up to the crash was a little known economist at the time in University College Dublin, UCD, but all the major bodies such as the Central Bank and the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, were predicting soft landings etc. That is why I raise this question. I do not have the Minister's grasp of economics. I am a psychotherapist so I bow to the Minister's superior knowledge but I do have a good memory and a good emotional memory for the events. We do not seem to have similar conditions for a property bubble in that people are not borrowing to the same extent. I accept that but interest rates are at a record low and that cannot last forever so people are borrowing at a very low rate.

For the first time in approximately 20 years I went to look at a show house - I have had no reason to look at one - in my constituency, Rathfarnham. It is a three or four bedroom end of terrace in Ballyboden, Dublin 16, a good middle class area and the starter price is €560,000. That is a peak of the boom price, as I remember them. I know the situation is different now. I heard what the Minister said about the help-to-buy scheme but I am conflicted because there is significant opinion that differs with what the Minister said about the help-to-buy scheme fuelling prices. They may not be big players in the commentary space, such as DAFT.ieand myhome.ie, which have said the help-to-buy scheme has contributed to inflation in house prices but the Governor of the Central Bank has also said it. The Minister disagrees with him but he is a significant player in terms of offering economic advice. He has said he does not think there can be any doubt that if one has additional capacity to enter the system there will be impact effect, even though it applies only to new builds. He says it will drive up prices. Could the Minister comment on that?