An interesting point was made today. How is it that we can grant 10,000 planning applications in Mayo and then find that the rural population has declined? A small amount of this is accounted for by holiday homes – other counties such as Galway have set their faces against granting permission for holiday homes – but the same thing is happening in the cities. How can we explain the fact that something like 53,000 houses were built in the State last year, while on the neighbouring island, with a population of 60 million – 15 times larger than population here – only approximately 120,000 houses were built during the same period? The reason was identified by a County Mayo man, Professor Seamus Caulfield, in a paper he wrote.