Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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221. To ask the Minister for Finance the degree to which he monitors house property prices with a view to prevention of inflation through that sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16740/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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While housing policy is primarily the responsibility of the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, my Department continues to monitor developments in the wider property market, including trends in house prices, on an ongoing basis as these issues can have spillover effects to the rest of the economy. 

As part of the Rebuilding Ireland, Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, the Government has set out a comprehensive package of 113 actionable measures designed to address the ongoing structural constraints within the construction sector and restore the housing market to a sustainable equilibrium. The implementation of these actions is monitored on an ongoing basis and reported publicly through quarterly progress reports. 

According to the Central Statistics Office's Residential Property Price Index, national property prices increased by 0.6 per cent between December and January and by 7.9 per cent on an annual basis. At the regional level, residential property prices in the 12 months to January 2017 increased by 5.3 per cent in Dublin and by 11.3 outside of Dublin. Relative to peak, prices in Dublin are 32.4 per cent lower with those outside Dublin some 36.6 per cent lower.