Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

A cornerstone of people providing for their old age in Ireland is that they are in a position to buy houses and, by and large, pay off their mortgages before they retire.

The property, in turn, becomes a valuable asset to be used if they require care or to be passed on to their families, in whole or in part. I agree with Deputy Martin Heydon's equal emphasis on affordable housing, on which I welcome Professor Barrett's view. There are many people renting who are paying more than if they had a comparable mortgage. That brings me to my last suggestion. Could we have a finance bond for housing via the NTMA? The Labour Party has proposed such a bond on a couple of occasions. We are accumulating a lot of savings, partly because of the crash. Could some of the funds be utilised to provide housing finance? I would consider putting it into the NTMA because I believe it has the capacity to actually deliver. That would be the add-on. Does Professor Barrett agree that the finance structures for the housing market are broken? They are significantly broken for many potential developers and builders.