Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

—are absorbed by the developers and a little bit of competition between developers and house builders would do no harm whatsoever. In other countries, such as England, one pays development costs for schools as well as for the playground or local amenity. The key to defeating house price inflation is supply, and the development contribution system is crucial to providing the necessary services for land to build houses as well as the additional facilities that make it attractive to live and work in a place.

Our success in increasing house supply is reflected in the fact that house construction has increased so significantly in recent years. The figure for last year was 57,700 new units. We announced figures earlier this week for the first nine months of this year and they are up 15% to 16% on that figure. Figures often do not seem very meaningful but ten years ago we built 22,000 dwelling units while this year it will be 60,000 or more. That is an extraordinary increase. One will not find the like of it anywhere in the EU or in the developed world.