Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The other point I want to take up again is the rainy day fund. This is the tenth anniversary of the bank guarantee. Ten years ago, many of Mr. Coffey's counterparts from the Department of Finance were in telling us everything was fine, particularly in the summer and before the recess in 2008. I worry about the rainy day fund. Mr. Tutty gave a very good explanation of its purpose. Would it be beyond our capacity, or would it be outside of the European rules, for example, to find a way to put it into social rented or social purchased housing whereby there would be an absolute calculated rate of return, on the low side probably because it would be through rents and interest payments on socially affordable mortgages? Going back to the demographics, the rent increases, particularly in the areas I represent, are not sustainable. In my constituency, many of US multinational companies - even where they pay a lot of money - are certainly rethinking whether they can really afford to have people here in light of the extraordinary levels at which rents are being charged. These companies can no longer rent houses for staff who come to Ireland in the same way they had been for the past two decades. The availability-----