Dr. Peter Stafford:

By way of context, Exchequer funding of social housing in 2009 was €1.5 billion, while this year it is €300 million. We cannot switch on that tap and get back to €1.5 billion; therefore, we must look creatively to see what we an do. Our presentation opened with the idea that we are in a housing crisis and that the crisis in the housing market has lasted longer than the Second World War, in the sense that we went from crisis to crisis. The challenge now is to rebuild and put together a programme that ensures that the mistakes of the past never happen again. Our previous budget submission, entitled "Towards a National Property Strategy," highlighted the need for a strategic approach to decide what the success rate appeared to be for the housing market, for building social housing, for communities and for planning. One of the ways in which Property Industry Ireland tries to stimulate a debate is to look at the different models that are available. That is what we are trying to. We recognise that there is a crisis that needs to be solved; the difficulty is solving it in an absence of money.