Ms Mary Rose Burke:

Unusually, when we ask businesses what are the biggest challenges facing them, housing is number one. Many of our companies find it difficult to fill vacancies. We are operating in a tight labour market in Dublin at the moment and where companies can attract somebody to a take a job, they find he or she cannot take it because he or she cannot get suitable housing. Housing would not normally be an employer or a business issue but because of the failure in the market, it is the number one issue for our businesses.

We would not see an overheating of the property market in the sense of oversupply. Prices are going up because there is insufficient supply to meet the demand. That demand is driven by people who choose to come to live and work in Dublin and we need to meet that demand.