Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House for this debate and thank him for his words which will give us some small solace in the property and housing market crisis. I acknowledge that a start has been made by the Government, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the local authorities to establish the exact number of unfinished estates and vacant units in the country. I will say more about that later because I have some questions about it. We must acknowledge in this debate how we got here so that we can learn from past mistakes and the legacy that has now been passed on to the next generation - a poor legacy, unfortunately, as a result of the property bubble we have experienced over recent years and the lack of regulation by the Government of the various players in the property market and across the banking sector. One example of this is that between 2004 and 2008, more than €870 million in tax breaks was claimed by developers. That equates to almost €1 billion over a four-year period.