Dr. Kieran McQuinn:

I will add to the point about housing, and it is a point we have often made both here and elsewhere. There has been a unique set of circumstances over the past number of years. There was the huge, dramatic fall off in supply after the financial crisis, which Dr. Barrett spoke about. We are coming from a low base. When it comes to who should provide the housing, one of the issues unfortunately is that the financial crisis did not just wipe out a large amount of the construction sector. It also brought about a lot of changes in the financial sector about the provision and allocation of credit. I think most people would agree with that. That has ironically made it more difficult for those in the construction sector, in particular, to access credit. That has put additional pressure on the private sector. We have called for the Government to be more involved and it has ratcheted up its involvement in the sector quite a bit. However, it is coming from a low base. That is unfortunately why it is taking time. There are some recent example of collaboration and co-operation between the private and the public sector.

For instance, the LDA has been involved in certain schemes where it has gone in and tried to activate situations where planning permission has been granted in collaboration with private developers. This has begun to bring some degree of activity on line. Unfortunately, the private sector is also confronting issues such as the higher interest rates we have seen recently. They have also increased the cost of finance for those in the private sector. Because of where we are coming from, we need a certain amount of Government involvement to kick-start activity. There is scope for collaboration between the private and public sectors. It would be crowding in as opposed to crowding out. This will be the way forward in the coming years if we are to increase output.