Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is the unworkables that I want to target in this particular area. We have all dealt with them, right from the beginning ten years ago. The problem is as great today in some cases as it was ten years ago because, as Ms Rowland must bear in mind, countless proposals were made to the lending institutions at the beginning made up of warehousing parts of the mortgage and the longest possible period of extension. Then one could not get past the late 60s in terms of age to facilitate that. All of a sudden, it is extended, because it suited the lending agencies, to 70 years of age and 80 years of age. One will be 90 years of age before it is paid. I have no problem with that. At least it leaves the person in the house in a position where he or she can work his or her way out of it.

I have two queries relating to investment funds in the property market and how they are affecting the cost of housing. For instance, are they paying the highest possible rates to acquire sites and build housing schemes or how are they regulated? Who is watching over their shoulder to ensure that they are not contributing significantly to house-building and ownership inflation, and finally by inflating the price of the finished product? Is there a possibility that some housing schemes are being held up for different reasons, not all of which are as visible as I would like, and that the customer eventually pays by paying more?

Finally, there are situations where older people find themselves in a very difficult situation now where they have been renting all their lives. There were advertisements in the media, five years ago and ten years ago, but not so many now, whereby one was a renter, one was not investing in bricks and mortar, and this was the cheapest way to go. It was absolutely wrong information. Those people now find themselves facing rapidly increasing rent costs and the local authority does not have the wherewithal to house them. The other group involved in that are the people whose income is too high for the local authority - the local authority will not allocate a house to them - and too low to get a mortgage in the market. Where are they supposed to go? They are going into the high rent that is charged by the investment houses.