Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

At the moment in Dublin, the analysis of the commercial property market shows us that we are dealing with a bubble in commercial property that exceeds the bubble we saw in 2006 and 2007. There is all manner of downsides to this. There are very few winners. The only winners are some foreign landlords and even they will become losers if and when the bubble bursts. Specific to the Minister's portfolio, I think we are all agreed that there needs to be more residential development in Dublin as well as many other places. However, because there is so much more profit to be made in Dublin from commercial property development because of this bubble than there is from residential property development, what I am hearing from investors and developers is that they will, of course, direct their assets to commercial which, therefore, crowds out residential developments. Is the Minister aware of this, does he think it is a serious issue and does he think there needs to be a push back to have these foreign landlords and commercial property developers pay tax in this country to stop crowding out residential development?

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