Micheál Carrigy (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I thank Mr. O’Connell. We have gone way over time, as I said. Luckily there was not another committee meeting in here - we originally thought there was but there was not - and that gave us some flexibility.

I thank the witnesses for coming in at short notice. It has been a fantastic informative meeting for myself and all the members. I would like to see us working together in continuing to highlight these issues. The reality is developers and builders build houses. We do not. It is up to us to put the supports and infrastructure there that will allow that to happen. That is what we will have to do. We will have to work to make sure the funding models and the infrastructure, in particular, is put in place to make sure we actually hit the targets. It is good to hear some positivity and that some of the changes are making a difference but I will highlight again that it is unfortunate that then we have somebody who is prepared to bring something to a judicial review that might block the development of thousands or tens of thousands of apartments. Ms Loughrey-Grant made the point that we have the lowest level of apartment building within the EU. There is massive scope there for us to develop the apartments particularly.

I thank everyone again for coming in. My intention is that we will set a date at some stage in the new year. We will put the meeting on a biannual basis because we need to hear exactly what is happening on the ground. I thank everybody.

I propose the meeting continue in private session to discuss other matters. Is that agreed? Agreed.