Mr. Paul Hogan:

In reverse of what Senator Murnane O'Connor stated, we agree that housing is a serious competitiveness issue for Ireland. That is well recognised. The issue is that we face a significant backlog that goes back some time. It is not that it happened overnight. Only five years ago, we were still dealing with ghost estates and issues around the country with regard to oversupply of housing in certain places.

There is housing available and it can be provided in other parts of the country. The Senator mentioned Frankfurt, but elsewhere in Ireland it is possible to source affordable housing. That is partly why we are backing regional Ireland and the regional cities in terms of the national strategy towards growth.