Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

To the greatest extent we can, this was one of the areas of the capital programme we sought to affect least because of the importance of housing for some of the reasons Deputy Ó Caoláin outlined. I am glad to know he is an advocate of the construction sector. He was an arch critic of it while I was Minister for Finance and I am glad he sees its importance now that it has had some difficulties.

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