Professor Philip Lane:

On investment and construction activity, there has been significant growth this year compared with last year. We see the pipeline between now and next year and between 2019 and 2020 as quite significant. Definitely, regardless of whether we are looking at completions of new homes, in addition to which are other elements such as home renovations, which are another part of residential investment in terms of improving homes and so on, all of that is showing strong growth year by year. There is a supply response happening, but given the many years of underinvestment, it is not closing the gap completely. This remains a multi-year challenge.

It also remains the case that there are many public policy issues about affordability, social housing and all of these things, which are in the hands of the Oireachtas. As the members know, we have a budget next week, and under public investment programmes and so on there are choices to be made. According to our current projections, it is the case that there is a significant pick-up this year compared with last year, and we see it continuing to expand year on year. It is definitely moving and the situation is different now from what it was two years ago, but it is not enough to close the gap. That is true.