Mr. Kevin James:

To some extent an academic exercise was carried out in a bit of a vacuum in terms of looking at market research.

If you go out to tender in a normal environment, the spread of tenders we are getting at the moment, whether it is a single house or 250 houses in a development, could be between 10% and 15%. The Deputy is absolutely right about the inflationary environment we are in at the moment and the risk market. This is a levy that is not going to come into effect until September. Therefore, in trying to look at the impact of where we will be in September and what the true cost will be at the market, plus the fact the industry is already on notice that concrete will potentially increase again given energy increases, to call a figure at a moment in time is a bit like the conversation we had with mica earlier - it is a freeze frame. We are trying to forecast and say what the implications will be for the industry come September and the impact on housing generally. We could debate whether this is €500 or €1,200. I think it is irrelevant.

To go back to the Deputy's first question, single houses will not solve our housing crisis. It is high-density housing and the apartment schemes we are focusing on and the implications there. I absolutely get that we have to look at this as a three bedroom semi-detached house that is attributable to the mica scenario, but the society has run a sensitivity analysis in terms of the deficits of housing, where we have been, where we are now and where we need to get to to satisfy the housing demand over the next ten years. We have reported that we need to be building 45,000 houses a year for the next ten years. We have to look very closely at the viability of those decisions we make in terms of making those projects happen and, in conjunction with the CIF and other industry stakeholders, to ensure we understand the cost-benefit analysis to make sure we can satisfy the demand and we have a supply chain to deliver those. It is complex in some respects, but I feel we will not meet the Housing for All targets unless we look closely at how we unlock high-density developments throughout the country.