Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

To continue on the housing issue, and I accept the witnesses cannot discuss the policy and the structures, but from the point of view of overheating and the macroeconomic questions that are the council's remit, if the council sees a threat of overheating is it the council's responsibility to warn the Government about it? It is indisputable that the price of accommodation in the private sector is clearly an overheating threat. One could argue all roads lead to it. The labour and skills shortage roads lead to it, as do potential wage demands and potential social welfare costs in terms of the cost of emergency accommodation or renting from the private sector. It is arguable that if one were to look for overheating threats, the housing threat is way beyond any other threat. The council should flag that more strongly. That is incumbent upon a body whose remit is to warn against overheating. For example, NAMA has more or less redeemed all its bonds. Whatever case is made about what it did with its assets up until now, I believe that NAMA continuing to sell off land is contributing to the overheating threat. Would the council accept that it is?