Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Following what Deputy Healy-Rae had to say, there is one issue in this country that is causing a lot of anxiety to the younger half of the population. Remember we have an ageing population and a younger population. They are supposed to balance each other out in terms of the degree to which we rely on the younger population to fund the future and the liability of people of my age. The younger population is not happy and does not have ready access to such things as funding for housing. Their only option is to rent a house at €2,500 per month, which is incredible. They could obviously borrow and buy a house on a mortgage for much less than this. This is the situation we had back in the early 1990s. We know where that ended. Can we be assured that we can deal with the housing problem in a reasonable way that is accessible and makes bigger progress than has been made to date without incurring the wrath of the ECB or the European Union in terms of state aid?