Mr. Tom Parlon:

That is fine and I appreciate that. Infrastructure is key to delivering for Irish society. Public procurement and how contracts are awarded to the lowest price tender is having a detrimental impact on the industry, on members of the industry and on the quality of products. It is not just in construction but across the board. We need a sustainable procurement system that will deliver quality construction and, of course, realistic and robust pricing. We have proposed using the globally recognised "most economic advantageous" tender criteria which takes on board quality standards as well as price etc. It is also important that there is early contractor involvement so that the contractor can be involved at the project management and design stages. Housing is a major issue that everybody is concerned about. We are asking the Government to extend the help to buy scheme beyond 31 December because it provides surety to first-time buyers and to the banks lending to the builders providing the first time houses as well as much stability. We feel that is critical to give confidence to the banking system and the house building community.

The last budget announced Home Building Finance Ireland, HBFI, which was a positive initiative to fund smaller builders that do not have access to international funds. We are nearly 12 months on and there is no sign of that initiative being put in place. We believe that if the HBFI was in place, it has the potential to make house building viable in areas like Tullamore, where our President is from, Portlaoise, Sligo and Kilkenny. Those are areas where-----