Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Not that Mr. Sibley is aware of. The final issue I want to discuss is the economy and the macroeconomic outlook, which I think this committee needs to focus more on. The Governor did not say that the economy is overheating. I ask him to inform the committee of the factors which inform the opinion that it is not overheating. I am glad that he referred in his opening statement to the issue of non-mortgage buyers. I have been in communication with Professor Lane privately about this. I have major concerns about this. The figures presented here today speak volumes. Some 55% of home purchases are by non-mortgage buyers, with a sizeable section done by real estate investment trusts, REITs, which we facilitate generously through our tax codes. This is having an impact and pushing ordinary buyers out of the market, people who rely on mortgages. Has the Central Bank any projection of when demand is likely to meet supply? We are currently behind on that. The witnesses mentioned that the tax-efficient structures, the REITs, make up 14.5% of all home purchases during that period. If we were to just look at the urban regions, such as Dublin, what proportion would they be? REITs are not buying houses in Donegal, Leitrim or Cavan. What proportion are these tax-incentivised structures buying up where there is acute pressure on house prices and demand?

There are concerns about commercial real estate, the true trigger to our economic collapse, which we do not pay much attention to. I have written to the witnesses about my concerns with the super-geared business model of some of these businesses. The statistics stand for themselves. They are shocking and alarming. I ask the witnesses to comment on that and also to comment on whether they believe that the increase in stamp duty has had an impact on dampening what we are seeing in the commercial market. I have said this before at the committee. I believe that we are in bubble territory with commercial property and, unless we get a handle on it, things could go very wrong very quickly with a change of international direction on the issue.