Dr. Kieran McQuinn:

The Deputy made an interesting point in his original comment on how to measure some of the indicators that could be used. A similar comment was made when the measures we suggested were being implemented.

If one thinks of it in broad terms, however, it is somewhat defeatist to say we cannot measure these things or that they are too difficult to measure and we should, therefore, shy away from going down that avenue. We can point to a great deal of research, for instance, which shows clearly that some of the models we use would have highlighted in advance difficulties that were coming in the property market, including over-valuation of house prices. Those are on record and can be seen. More broadly - again, as I said earlier, it is just making the comparison between macro-prudential policy and something like monetary policy - the argument falls down a little in the following sense. When the Governor of the Central Bank, Mr. Lane, or whoever is going over to Frankfurt for the monetary policy decision, he is confronted with a huge amount of data and analysis on where the European economy is at any particular point in time. Those data and analyses are then used to underpin the monetary policy decision that is reached. However, if one thinks about it, that is basically assessing the overall performance of the economy. Within the overall performance of the economy is, of course, the performance of the housing sector. By definition, if we are saying that what goes on in the housing sector is too difficult to analyse or too difficult to estimate or pin down, one could equally say that is a problem that should confront people who are looking at the broader issue of monetary policy or fiscal policy.