Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

That is a pity. It is part of the chronic arrogance of the Government that it is guillotining such a motion. The whole policy in this area needs change. I defy anyone on the other side of the House to give me any convincing reasons to believe that the housing market has been managed competently by the Government. All the indicators are to the contrary. Sadly, the very bloated nature of the housing market and the excessive prices that people must pay are undermining our competitiveness. As a small open economy, we depend on being able to trade. One of the reasons we are running into difficulties is because the Government has mismanaged a crucial market that is important to maintaining competitiveness, namely, the housing market. I see no indication in any of this legislation that there has been any thinking about either the equity or the efficiency of the way in which we intervene in the housing market. A lot of change needs to happen before we could say we are doing anything for either fairness or stability in the housing market.

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