Mr. John Hogan:

The macroprudential rules are not a target. In addition, there must be a rigorous assessment by the bank as to the capacity of the borrower to meet the repayments. We know the history of mortgage arrears from the last crash and the lax lending standards at the time that allowed for a situation where individuals were unable to meet their repayments. There is stronger oversight of the banking system by our Central Bank colleagues than we might have seen at that time. There has been a review of the help-to-buy scheme by Mazars. It concluded there is no definitive evidence that the scheme pushed up the prices of new houses.

As part of the drive around Housing for All, several interventions on the demand side were mentioned. However, we expect the strong level of interventions on the supply side will have a real effect. One of the interventions on which we in the Department of Finance have worked intensively with colleagues in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and local authorities in recent months is the zoned land tax. It will have been noticed that the maps associated with this were published in the media in recent weeks. There will be a public relations campaign to bring people's attention to the implications for individuals and businesses in respect of a site or an area that is services and zoned under this measure.

In the round, one must look at all the interventions. Mr. McCarthy is right in terms of pure practicality. If there is a lot of demand, which we do have, and supply is constrained, we have to look at the issues in respect of adding to supply. That is as far as I can go in talking about Government policy.