Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree that the question about quantitative easing is what happens when the ECB turns off the tap. When the Fed turned off the tap, it did not go so well. However, it is not just about that. If CMU is in place in four years' time, this would be round 1 of quantitative easing. We have just started another asset price bubble and the ECB will fuel a bubble through quantitative easing. Something will happen in the next five or six years and we will see another collapse and then the ECB will do exactly what the Fed did and turn it back on. We are into a quite standard boom and bust asset bubble burst, fuelled by monetary policy or quantitative easing. If we are talking about how easy it becomes to move money around the Union, the fact that the money tap is being used in a very serious way is relevant. They are flooding the market with liquidity and we are talking about making it easier for that liquidity to move around the market. I agree but what the witnesses are talking about is the end of phase 1 of quantitative easing and there will be second, third and fourth phases over the next 20 years. I will ask a further question.