Dr. Peter Bacon:

The Deputy is quite right. The second and third reports recognised what was happening was at the bottom of the market. The market had raced away and there was a yawning gap for people on lower incomes trying to get on to the first step of the ladder. The reports contained specific measures to try to address that, such as shared ownership schemes and partial equity. There were specific measures contained in both the second and third reports to try to deal with that.

On the Deputy's third point, I can remember being asked by a commentator in an RTE programme, which I believe was broadcast on 9 April, how I could morally stand over something. The reason I remember the answer I gave at the time was that I got an awful lot of stick for it. I answered that I was an economist, not a moralist. I cannot give an answer on a moral issue and the morality of something; I can only deal with the economics of it.