As a schoolboy, Mr Alan Cooke earned pocket money on Saturdays showing houses to prospective clients of a local estate agents firm. It should come as no surprise then that the current chief executive of the Irish Auctioneers & Valuers Institute (IAVI) should choose a career as an estate agent when he left school.

Before becoming chief executive of the IAVI, Mr Cooke spent more than 25 years at the coalface of the estate agency and auctioneering business in the Republic. Equally unsurprising is that somebody with such a long track record in the business should have some strong views on the state of the industry today.

"I'm very worried about the housing market. That's the bottom line," he says bluntly.

What worries him is what he calls excessive Government interference in the Irish housing market. Mr Cooke has been among the most vocal and trenchant opponents of various Government policies to ease the housing crisis in the Republic.

"The problem was the Government found itself in a hole. It was becoming more unpopular because the market was becoming more and more hectic. The old adage of 'when you're in a hole, stop digging' never applied so succinctly to anything. But I think they wanted to look busy and they wanted to look like they were doing something," he says.

He reserves his greatest criticism for the Government's plans for social and affordable housing, stamp duty and residential property tax, the last of which has since been abandoned. Not only is he unhappy about the Government's scheme for social and affordable housing, which will force developers to set aside 20 per cent of any scheme for such developments, he is also angry about the way it was introduced.

"I felt this was introduced by the Government as a fait accompli. There was no debate or discussion about it. There was certainly no public mandate for it. The Government wasn't elected with that on its agenda."

He says the scheme is unworkable and fails to take into account the prime law of property - location.

"I hate to say this but the one thing that 95 per cent of the Irish property buying public will bear in mind is you don't have social housing beside you," he says. "You might say it is socially desirable but that doesn't mean it's going to have widespread acceptance."

Removing up to 20 per cent of private building sites at a time of record demand will only inflate house prices in the private sector because constraint in the supply of development land is one of the most important factors in housing inflation, Mr Cooke says.

The substantial growth achieved by Irish homebuilders in the late 1990s has been reversed by the Government's decision, negating the prime reason behind the plan - namely to increase the supply of houses and make them more affordable, he adds.

"In the first half of the year, the production of new housing starts dropped because builders are very afraid of what the market reaction is going to be to what is being foisted upon them. They're scared of the uncertainty and the Government has produced that uncertainty."

The IAVI was in the vanguard of those criticising the Government's decision to impose the anti-speculative tax of 2 per cent per annum over the first three years of ownership on all non owner-occupied homes. The aim of the measure was to stop investors buying up new houses, thereby, freeing up housing for first-time buyers.

"It was so simplistic, it was frightening," says Mr Cooke. "It annoyed me because basically what the Government succeeded in doing was to convince the media and, therefore, the public that these measures were anti-investor and that investors would be hurt."

He says the real effect was to hit tenants in the private rental sector as the rental supply dried up with investors putting their money elsewhere. "It wasn't a question of units becoming available to owner occupiers. In essence, supply dried up. It stopped. Builders lost confidence and financiers lost confidence," he says.

While welcoming the U-turn by the Government on the 2 per cent anti-speculative property tax, he claims effects of the scheme will take some time to work their way out of the system.

While Mr Cooke argues that Government interference has added to the housing crisis, others have argued that estate agents and auctioneers played their part in helping to stoke up the market. Mr Cooke rejects this claim.

"Our members and other estate agents don't make the market. We operate the market. I think it would be unfair to say that, collectively, auctioneers have the ability to push prices up 20 per cent. The people who push up prices are buyers. The people who produced the crazy prices in auctions are buyers," he said.

Some commentators say the boom is well and truly over and that other threats loom for the housing market - the key one being what effect a global economic downturn will have on the Republic and its housing market. But Mr Cooke remains confident that there will be no crash in the housing market.

"If you look at the balance of economic comment, it has always been that we would have a softish landing. In terms of any market, the price will be dictated by the number of buyers that are there in the market, and the number of house buyers exceeds the number of sellers and will continue to exceed the number of sellers.

"We've had a long period of growth. Some people would argue that it was a long period of adjustment in Ireland. They would see this as the Irish economy maturing, basically becoming a 21st century economy, doing that in a short timescale and that brought the adjustment we had in the property market."

Many auctioneers and estate agents made a lot of money during that adjustment and Mr Cooke is unapologetic about the profits made by auctioneers and estate agents during the housing boom.

"That is what the market is there for," he says. "So did the IT people when they were selling computers, so does anyone when their own market is busy. Nobody was queuing up to offer sympathy to auctioneers in the 1980s when things were stagnant. We make no apologies."

But he is keen to see that not just anybody can enter the market and make a killing in property booms. However, he recognises his organisation has no power to stop any person starting an auctioneering or estate agency business tomorrow, providing that person is over 18 years of age or is incorporated as a limited company, is not a declared bankrupt, is not certifiably insane and can produce a £10,000 (€12,700) bond.

He would like to see changes in these criteria to protect the reputation of his colleagues.

"I think the bond needs to be looked at. And I think the requirement for education is long overdue to be looked at," he says. "Basically, the reason we feel people should be educated in property is because it is extremely complicated area."

He sees the prime role of the IAVI as offering education to members. It has a four-year degree programme in auctioneering, valuation and estate agency. But he says his desire for educational requirements is not designed to protect members of his own institute by capping numbers.

By stressing the need for education, Mr Cooke is asking no more than he asked of himself.

After leaving school, he joined Morgan Scales in Dublin while, at the same time, he studied at the College of Commerce in Rathmines for a diploma in auctioneering, valuation and estate agency. When he qualified, he went to Finnegan Menton, where he stayed for 12 years.

He left with another colleague, Mr Hugh Comisky, to form a partnership, Comisky & Cooke, eventually buying Mr Des Scales's practice from Morgan Scales to form Comisky Cooke Scales. From there he went on to become the chief executive of the IAVI.

Away from the housing business, Mr Cooke has a keen interest in League of Ireland soccer. But he is as outspoken on the topic as he is on the housing market.

"I love domestic soccer. I'm not a cross-channel man. I think it is an imported product and is totally overhyped," he says.

Despite living in Templeogue on Dublin's southside, he follows a north Dublin team, Bohemians,having been a fan since his father brought him to a match in Dalymount Park when he was 12.

Away from football, he likes to spend time with his wife, Anne, and two sons.

However, he says he is also partial to a game of golf, although he needs to get more practice and some lessons. "I like to play golf but I can't, I'm the ultimate duffer," he says.

The IAVI conference at the Brandon Hotel in Tralee, continues until Sunday.