Mr. John Moran:

There remains an acute shortage of good quality spaces in the locations where people want to occupy such spaces. The vacancy rate for what we describe as grade A accommodation, the best space in the best location in the city, is sub 3%. I understand there is only one building of over 100,000 sq. ft. available in Dublin city at this time. It is a serious issue which has led to very significant increases in office rents. We do a lot of work for foreign occupiers and it is now a major concern in terms of our FDI competitiveness. People look around Dublin and think certain postal districts compete against each other. Our experience, however, is that Dublin, when trying to attract foreign investment, is competing against Birmingham and Berlin. We are at a stage where our rent prices are getting to the level of being unsustainable. A rental price in the order of €50 to €55 per square foot is sustainable in Dublin, given that it is an international capital and the amount of technology companies based here.