Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Professor Honohan mentioned earlier that banking should be ethical in its conduct. In all the interviews he conducted with the leading players concerning the blowing up of the bubble, did he find any concern for the victims of the bubble - the young generation of working people trying to purchase a home? From 1996 to 2006, the price of a home rose by the equivalent of the average industrial wage each year.

Their mortgages went from 20 years to 40 years, shackling them to this millstone of debt. If nothing else might have prompted intervention, did Professor Honohan find any concern for the plight of this generation, which was almost destroyed by this profiteering?