Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Leader to organise a debate as soon as possible with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan. A series of suggestions to assist the housing market have been made during the past week. I declare my interest in that I am an auctioneer. There is talk of a tax on unused sites. I agree with that if finance is available. This plays into previous points because if finance was available for developers to use land, I would agree that we should encourage them to build houses. However, this is not possible because most of the land is under the control of NAMA and local authorities so it is fantasy and nonsense from the Minister, Deputy Kelly.

I agree wholeheartedly with a previous speaker with regard to a deposit of 20% for buying a house. Who are the people working in the Central Bank? My God, it concerns me that we might have the same kind of muppetry we had that led us into the crisis if they think that a person could actually save €50,000 for a purchase price of €250,000. There is a little boom going on in Dublin districts 2, 4 and 6, where prices are going up.