Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I welcome the fact that the witnesses have responded positively to the issues surrounding the dangers of the property bubble. I raised the issue of real estate investments trusts last year at the budget and again this year. Could the witnesses comment on that? As I understand it, this is a model that has essentially been adopted from the US where there are worrying signs it could be producing a bubble. I think this is a very dangerous development. It also relates to a larger conundrum discussed here and the issue of growthless jobs, which we also discussed with the Department of Finance and which I raised with the Minister for Finance during the budget discussions. What the witnesses have said in summary is that we need growth to hit our targets but we cannot get growth without investment and we are not getting much investment because of the austerity requirements. This begs the question of who invests. As Dr. Donovan rightly pointed out, the only people who really have the money to invest now are those who made a fortune and were left standing after the crash. They are the only ones with money. They probably do have access to credit. The little guy has no access to credit but they have access to it. What they are doing is buying up bargain basement stuff left lying around after the crisis. The very people who caused it are now buying up everything at the bottom of the market so they can start the whole process again. Government policy is facilitating that. That is a very worrying development because it is a recipe for spectacular profits for them rather than investment directed towards real growth in the economy.