Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Christmas bonus is never in the budget because it would take away the Santa effect for Governments. On the issue of overheating, which we touched on previously in regard to non-residential construction, if we were to ramp up house construction we would have to dampen that sector, perhaps by way of stamp duties. The new heat map produced this year by the council indicated that another area with potential for overheating is employment. We are almost at full employment now. It is more difficult to dampen employment growth because it would require people to be laid off. How do we dampen it? Can it be done by investing in childcare or by bringing in workers from other jurisdictions? What are the real ways of dampening this particular sector?