Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I do not understand the Deputy's argument. He argues I should have moved earlier on stamp duty reform but it was his party's main policy plank going into the general election. This canard has been going about for 12 months. The Deputy has just decried the fact that housing output was increasing exponentially, which is a function of the market. The housing market and the capacity of the building industry grew because of demand. We have been decrying the fact that output was not meeting demand requirements which was a reason why house prices were high. Suddenly I am responsible for all this. I am responsible, thankfully, for managing the economy and letting people get on with their business.

The Deputy is claiming I should have intervened in the housing market by reducing stamp duty further and, as a result, increase house price inflation. The Deputy's argument does not make sense. An OECD report in the past month claimed my stamp duty changes were timely because the time to make an intervention is when the market is coming down. The time is not, which was the argument I had with Fine Gael and others last year, when the market is not coming down.

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