Mr. Vasileios Madouros:

I will take the questions in reverse order. On the commercial reliefs to that market adjustment we have seen, which the Deputy is absolutely right about, first of all, it is a global pattern. Part of it is because of the changing patterns of working following the pandemic. There has been a big shift in terms of lower demand for office space leading to different levels of occupation and different demand for space by companies. To the Deputy's point, that is also because the pipeline of activity in the commercial segment and office segment has reduced as the market is adjusting. There is the potential that some of this labour capacity can now be reallocated towards housing construction, which is very positive, and where some of the acute labour shortages are most needed.

In terms of the diversity of financing, I was referring to a macro-financial perspective in terms of the benefits of that but let me perhaps put it differently. A big difference between where we are now and where we were in the run-up to 2007 is that diversity in financing. Back then, it was entirely concentrated on the domestic banks funding domestic developers and, of course, the lending standards of that. Then, however, there was a lot of exposure and concentration. When the cycle turned, there was lot of domestic concentration. We have seen the benefits of a more diversified source of financing, and I do not just mean domestic versus international. We have seen increased diversification in terms of financing for construction even within Ireland with a role for banks, the State and non-bank lenders. That diversification has benefits when adverse shocks hit.

I will echo the Governor's point in terms of planning. To put it in the broader context, we covered a range of dimensions in the report. It was not the only one. We talked about the availability of serviced land as being particularly important, which, of course, relies on infrastructure around water, sewerage and electricity and planning and building regulation. Then, of course, as I mentioned earlier, there are issues around productivity in the construction sector and how we can support greater productivity and scale in the construction sector.

The Deputy is right; it is difficult to quantify the role of delays in the planning system. Some of the analysis I mentioned earlier is analysis based on macro modelling. However, there are different estimates out there that point to planning playing a role in adding to friction, not just in terms of the construction of housing but in some of the other broader big infrastructure projects that are needed.