Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The situation now is that, as a result of the hard landing that has come to the residential property market, it is imposing a fiscal drag of 4% on what would otherwise be a growing economy. We have to deal with that situation now. When people talk about the need for more housing, they have a lot to say about those who are involved in property markets, but that industry employed 250,000 people. It grew from an industry of 120,000 people.

See this speech in context