Mr. John Hogan:

To be clear on this, the problem is that we have to have sustainable lending and borrowing. We cannot have a situation whereby if the Central Bank decides to loosen the rules to ten times, people can suddenly borrow excessive amounts that cannot be met from their sustainable earnings. That is the first point.

The Deputy talked about the deposit. The help-to-buy scheme has been extended for two years. It provides a valuable support to first-time buyers when they are considering how to invest in their first home. Mr. McCarthy has articulated a situation where it is a good thing that we have lower levels of household debt. He was contextualising it in the situation we are now in, versus where we were in 2006 to 2008, when we ran into trouble with the economy. Those of us who were around and worked in the Department at that time saw the difficulties that arose for individuals and households as a result of excessive debt.

When we were looking at mortgage arrears issues and supports that were so important to help those households, we introduced a completely modernised personal insolvency arrangement because people found themselves in excessive debt. All of us here, when we offer advice to a Minister, it is contextualised on a number of things. One is that, yes, there is pressure on the housing market but, second, we want to ensure that where there is sustainable borrowing involved, that can be facilitated.