Professor Eamonn Walsh:

In terms of tying up with what I said earlier, what I find interesting about this report is that as one reads about the phases of the project undertaken by PwC - it should be borne in mind that I have only seen the final report and I have not seen the intermediary outputs, of which there could have been many, that might have been produced for the regulator - one discovers that these concentrations of risk are becoming more and more apparent as the project progresses. One gets a certain sense about the concentration of risk when one reads the first one. With the next one, it is a case of "Oh my goodness, there are 20 large borrowers and there seems to be quite a bit of exposure to development lending in very concentrated areas of north and south Dublin". With the third phase, it was "We'll have a look at the next 50 borrowers and guess what? It seems they also borrowed money in much the same areas of north and south Dublin". As I read through the report, I felt that in September these concentrations did not appear quite as bad as when we get to phase 3 of the report. That is how I read it.

The other thing that jumped out at me relates to the sort of concentrations outlined. PwC lists the 20 largest concentrations in the UK, the US and Ireland in its report. As I looked at it, the question I would have felt remained unanswered relates to whether there was an overlap between all of those concentrations. In other words, that there was a super-concentration involved.