Mr. Tom Parlon:

I will be brief. There is certainly a conundrum regarding the cost of producing a house, namely, the incentive for the builder to take a risk and get a profit versus the ability of somebody to buy the house. I am told by two different house builders active in the market that it is possible to go onto any site in Dublin today and get a house to buy. Supply has caught up with the ability to buy. That is a dilemma. Whether the discretion available from the Central Bank is running out or whatever, that is where matters stand.

We have been lobbying very hard. Goodbody Stockbrokers issued a report over the weekend which favoured the continuation of the help-to-buy scheme. We find that is a major factor in the context of a first-time buyer being able to buy a house. One of the builders yesterday told me that he had a list of 400 potential buyers. He had to go through every person on that list to sell 12 houses. One person was very enthused about getting a house but he was €10,000 short when he added to together his deposit, his mortgage and the few euros he had in cash. Without that €10,000, unfortunately, that was that.

There might be some notion abroad that if we can press down the price of houses, they will then become more affordable, Unfortunately, the margin for and viability of building is tight, particularly in view of the costs involved. That is only going to slow down building. I know of two large players that have actually slowed down production because the buyers are not coming along. That is a dilemma we are going to have to deal with in the next budget. Costs are increasing. Sometimes the discussion about inflation in construction is exaggerated. There is certainly some inflation on the labour side. There has also been much commentary on some of the big projects. I refer, for example, to the national children's hospital project and the fact that inflation has been blamed for the price escalation. That is not quite the case. Initial underestimation of the costs was a major factor. There are many areas that need to be dealt with. We see the continuation of the help-to-buy scheme as a priority, as well as the LIHAF scheme whereby infrastructure is introduced by local authorities. That could be water, roads, access, etc. The announcement of substantial funding for that scheme was very positive. However, only a fraction of the funding announced has been drawn down. It is extremely complicated, very slow and is certainly holding up some development as well.