Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

If the Government wants to, it can regulate the price of development land, the price of residential property, or the price of rent. It has to want to do so. I do not think the Government has an appetite to do this. I do not suggest that this is the first Government to choose not to do this. As far as I can recall in my lifetime, none of its predecessors chose to take this approach. It is essential that control over property and development land does not remain in the hands of a small group of people in the private sector. The small group of people who own the land will continue to control the prices unless the Government decides to regulate and control it.

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