Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As regards the Knowledge Development Box (Certification of Inventions) Bill 2016, it is to be taken at 4.45 p.m. and will conclude no later than 5.15 p.m. if not previously concluded. I wish to clarify that there will not be a single question, it will be just taken at the end of the debate.

I join with Senator Conway in sympathising with Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee and her husband John on the passing of his father. I also wish to inform the House that our friend and colleague, Senator Paul Gavan's mother has passed away following a recent illness. On my own behalf, I wish to sympathise with the Gavan family on their sad bereavement. I will have a note circulated to Members with the funeral arrangements.

Senator Ardagh raised the issue of housing and it is important for us to recognise that there is no quick solution to this. We have come out of the worst recession, which severely affected the construction industry, in particular the private and social housing sectors, as well as our banking system. Senator Ardagh would do well to recognise that her party was at the helm when the whole thing collapsed. The Government meanwhile is rebuilding the housing market under the Rebuilding Ireland initiative.

However, Senator Ardagh is right to highlight the inadequacies that are there. We all want to see houses being built promptly and any means of achieving that aim is to be welcomed. There is a plan to ensure that social housing is built and that first-time buyers can get into the market. However, we do not want to see a return to the boom-and-bust cycle we had before. That was fuelled in the main by the policies that Senator Ardagh's party drove while in government, as she knows quite well.