Mr. Michael O'Flynn:

That is a fair comment. I am tired of people not understanding the costs involved in our business model. The reality of the situation is that we need an open book approach to all of our costs. If a lot of people at this committee meeting understood the cost of our business model, they might understand the difficulties we have because people somehow think higher prices means higher profits. Higher prices do not mean higher profits.

We are trying to do the impossible when it comes to one of the most highly regulated apartment design regimes in the world. I am not suggesting we change anything, but the reality is that we need to consider the land and infrastructure costs, VAT and all of the rest. If we were serious about catching up with the shortfall and addressing the rental crisis, VAT would have been removed from apartments a number of years ago. Many issues could be dealt with.

Waivers have been introduced to help with housing. We need special waivers for apartments and special financing, be it from Europe or elsewhere, to help with funding the cost of development. Everything we do goes to the end purchaser, be it a private individual, housing body or whoever else. We should have an open book situation, something I have promoted for the industry for a long time.

I ask people to stop saying that, if the State did this, it would do it more cheaply. If we were prepared to put all of our costs on the table, the Deputy would be surprised by how little of a margin there is at this time in any of those types of development. Many apartment developments in this country are happening because of the involvement of AHBs, the LDA and others. Without them, there would be no apartment developments.

I will not get into rent pressure zones or the challenges with rent at this hour of the evening. The reality of the situation is that unless a development is viable, it is not fundable, and if it is not fundable, it will not happen. We need to accept the real costs, interrogate and certify them and introduce whatever system is desired. If we all got onto the same page on costs, perhaps we could do something about that because there is a myth that builders make a lot of profit. That is not the case. If it was, development would be happening. Let us move forward and learn from the past because we are failing people in all sectors of the housing community.