Mr. Sean Downey:

The data in the Mitchell McDermott report that the Department commissioned are excellent. Obviously, it is only the 48% hard costs. The report has to be taken in context, though. Birmingham was one of the cities examined. Birmingham has a population almost the same size as the Republic of Ireland's. It has a market that probably has much greater efficiencies in terms of scale.

Other analysis I heard just after the report was launched pointed to how tenure was important. If you are getting a grey box apartment, there is an expectation that you might be living in it for 20 years, so you would not mind investing €3,000 or €4,000 on the kitchen and floor coverings because you would not expect to be moved on in 12 to 18 months' time.

We must consider the different factors for why behaviours drive certain levels of finish and make certain specifications acceptable in the market. That could have a significant impact on the raw construction cost of delivering units.