Mr. John McCarthy:

On the second part, we do not borrow just for the national development plan. Borrowing is done based on all Government spending, current and capital. As I mentioned, we are in good shape in this regard. At the moment, the NTMA has about €35 billion in cash that it borrowed at, essentially, between 0% and 1% interest rates during the pandemic and so forth. The overall borrowing situation, then, is one where we are in reasonably good shape on this front.

Construction price inflation is clearly an issue. There are two elements to it, one on the goods side and one on the labour side. On the goods side, we have seen inflation in several inputs, including cement, aluminium and all this sort of stuff. One of the reasons for this is the war in Ukraine, but another factor stems from global supply chains coming to a halt during the pandemic. This has pushed up the price of various imports. On the labour side, there is a shortage in this area in the construction sector. This is of concern in the context of value for money. The Government is trying to build what is included in the national development plan, along with 40,000 and 50,000 housing units per annum and retrofitting homes affected by mica in Donegal and other places. We also then have the usual private sector construction activity, including home extensions, commercial offices and all this type of activity-----