Dr. Robert Sweeney:

There do seem to be problems down the road. The average age of a first-time buyer has increased over time. I believe it is currently 34, compared with 29 in the 2000s. There is an increasing number of people in their 40s and 50s who are renting, perhaps, because they could never afford to purchase a property or because of a relationship breakdown and so on. This will be a problem in the years to come if we do not begin to address our housing problems today.

Renting is not necessarily bad, if we have a functional rental system. Currently, rents in the Dublin area in particular are not affordable or stable and tenants are open to eviction where a landlord proposes to sell a property or to move some of his or her family into it. I am not necessarily opposed to having a high proportion of our population renting if we have a good rental system, which is affordable and meets high standards and provides security.