Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

——with the building and development of housing. It is not just the house but the surrounding area, the streetscape etc. that need to be considered. Funding must be provided for this. If that is not going to be done through a development levy, could the Senator please tell the House what other form of taxation will provide the money?

My final point concerns anyone of my generation who is a homeowner. We have seen an appreciation of the value of property in the last decade that we neither want nor need. There is a redistribution of wealth from the younger generation to the older generation which does not need it. Investors are important to the market but professional people who buy property after property and collect rents they do not need drive up the price for young people. I would be happier if some of the incentives we are offering to high income people, whose tax rate has been brought down to 42%, were abolished in 2006 as has been promised. We do not need to give incentives to people to purchase more properties and artificially boost prices so that house prices are beyond the reach of ordinary people. There is a social problem and I am concerned that policy is too favourable to the possessive classes and unfavourable to those who want to get on the property ladder. We need to achieve a soft landing because if things go too far, they will fall back. How we achieve that is an issue that needs ongoing reflection and I am sure that the Government is doing that.