We have a huge bulge of population at the family-forming age. We are now moving rapidly from having an average of five people per dwelling to the European norm of approximately three. The reality is that if we do not build many more houses in rural areas, we will inevitably have a decline in population. To freeze the number of houses in rural areas, as desired by some organisations, would inevitably mean a rapid decline in population, just as to hold static the number of houses in Dublin would result in a decline in its population. We can see at present that the population in the city area is declining – even though we are building quite a number of houses – because the number of people living in each house has declined. Years ago, parents lived in one house with six or seven children. Nowadays, people might have only two children or none at all. Students away at college might be occupying one house during the week and another at the weekend. If we do not build rural houses we will kill rural areas.