Yesterday, Professor John FitzGerald said the Government's plan to inflate house prices through the shared equity scheme was a bad idea for Ireland and a case of politicians doing stupid things. He pointed out that property owners and landowners would benefit from the scheme, not potential buyers. In the UK, a similar scheme led to a boom in profits for large developers. The Central Bank, the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, and officials from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform have all warned against the scheme. Given that Ireland already has some of the highest house prices in Europe and in view of the large increases in prices over the past year, will the Government scrap this scheme to inflate house prices?

The Government will look at all approaches and will not rely on any one scheme. We will introduce a series of measures that will have an effect in damping down prices. The variety of those measures will be set out in a housing for all strategy, which will be produced shortly, ahead of the national development plan, NDP, review, in recognition of the importance and priority we are putting on housing. It will not be any one solution. Yes, we have to look at the impact of individual solutions in terms of housing demand but when that is combined with other measures and done as part of a collective approach, which has a whole range of different solutions, then I believe it can be managed in a way that does not add to inflationary prices. The other measures are going to be key and they are not yet fully set out. They will be in the housing for all strategy.