Brendan Ryan (Labour)

We know what is going on. The Minister of State is one of the nicest people I know but he is stuck in an impossible position whereby decisions are being taken over his head not to upset the CIF in a year in which fairly substantial funding will be needed by a substantial number of Fianna Fáil Ministers. Not long ago, a Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government addressed the House and filleted the proposals on the rate of 20%. The following year, his funding was disclosed and the main funder was discovered to be a member of the CIF, a member of the construction industry.

I do not attribute motives to people but when I see obvious occurrences like this, I can only draw one conclusion, that is, when it comes to a choice between the interest of those who are buying houses and that of the wealthy builders, Fianna Fáil will always jump as far as it can in the direction of the builders. Let me give a good example. Many of the extremely affluent builders in the part of the country in which I live drive large recently registered cars, including cars manufactured by Mercedes and Lexus, which cost up to €100,000. Many of these cars must be ordered six months in advance.