Mr. Conor O'Connell:

They can access finance, but the problem is the cost. For the smaller builders there is an equity issue as well. They find it difficult. The Deputy is talking about the profitability of the house building sector. For many house builders, equity would not be a problem if there was greater profitability for them. At the moment the smaller builders have difficulty securing the finance and part of the difficulty of securing the finance is because they cannot have enough equity to proceed, so HBFI is absolutely vital.