Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Yesterday, Mr. Nyberg said the house price increase was a result of speculation by those for whom this was possible and also a result of their being financed primarily by banks. In this committee we are so circumscribed by legislation we are almost afraid to admit we are human at times, but I must confess to a certain frustration, having read four or five reports, that although Mr. Wright and other distinguished authors have spoken to bankers, developers, regulators, senior public officials, and senior political establishment figures, I do not hear the voice of the victims in the reports. The young workers who had to go to 40-year mortgages, for example, at unsustainable levels - I do not hear their voices. They were the victims of forces that were way above them and outside their control. Does Mr. Wright agree that is perhaps missing in these reports?