James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have done a careful analysis of these. We compared our own standards with general European standards. We saw that our standards were the highest in Europe, in our opinion, and we made the judgment call that we needed to change the specifications so they would be more in line with those in Europe and, in particular, to increase viability. Having the highest specifications for apartments that will never be built and will never get off the plans is completely pointless.