Mr. Marco Buti:

One can look through the many documents produced at the time assessing the state of the Irish economy and Irish policy. It is very difficult to identify whether a bubble exists or whether there is a strong increase in prices which could be part of a phenomenon with more equilibrium. One never calls a bubble ex ante. If one looks at assessment by the economic profession in general, objectively the identification of a bubble is very difficult. We had suspicions that certain elements were not part of a natural development of the economy, and in our documents we signalled that a number of measures were adding to these developments.