Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy gets confused with percentages. If a house drops from €300,000 to €200,000, it is a reduction of 33.3% but if the house increases from €200,000 to €300,000 it is an increase of 50%. Moving away from percentages and looking at the actual amount of money by which house prices are rising in Dublin, the prices are still 47% to 50% below where they were at the peak of the boom.

It is very good news for people who have invested a lot of their savings in houses, particularly those in negative equity, that the housing market is re-establishing itself, of which I am in favour.

Of course, there is pressure on rents, but part of it is due to the fact that the economy has entered a growth phase and more jobs are being created than even the Government had anticipated. Many young people are being sucked into Dublin and looking for rental accommodation. The vulture capitalists the Deputy deplores so much are the ones who are helping to solve the problem. They will buy whole blocks of apartments and invest to upgrade them. They are investing in the economy and providing the accommodation we need. NAMA is playing its part also. The collapse was so profound that it will take a while to get the housing market back on an even keel again.

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