James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

We know that inflation in the construction industry, in particular, has driven up costs quite significantly. That has affected the viability challenge around the delivery and why we are having to make a certain amount of important decisions around facilitating the viability and, in turn, affecting the affordability for people to be able to purchase.

In terms of taking inflation into account, we will always have that issue. It can be quite challenging, as inflation can vary quite substantially from year to year. We have seen that ourselves over the last six or seven years, where inflation could be 2% for several years in a row, then spike quite quickly and go back down again. I am talking about general inflation and not construction inflation. It is something that any Department has to carry in a particular year when looking for capital funding.