The recent ESRI report provided further proof, if any were needed, that the Bacon report recommendations on eliminating the private investor from the property market have lessened the availability of rental properties.

The ESRI now joins the Institute of Professional Auctioneers in building a consensus about the consequences of the removal by Government of the ordinary business tax reliefs for those investing in property for rental purposes.

The intention may have been to reduce investor demand for housing, and so reduce prices but even if that has been achieved, since the introduction of this measure rents have risen sharply, and the government is paying out millions in rent subsidies.

There is evidence that property owners - professional landlords who were in business prior to the removal of the tax relief, have decided to effectively cut and run, selling up and benefiting from windfall gains.

The problem with this is that rents, which in other countries are typically 10 per cent lower than mortgage repayments are 25 to 30 per cent higher per month in Dublin.

This reduces labour mobility and makes it impossible for young people to save for a house. The worst impact, however, is on those at the very bottom of the market who depend on rental accommodation, for which competition is so strong that clients in receipt of State rental subsidies are simply forced out of the market.

A slowing of apartment construction is also resulting in unsustainable building patterns as many builders turn to construction of traditional low density housing in outer Dublin areas rather than the redevelopment of brownfield or infill sites which would see Dublin's housing crisis solved.