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

In that regard, in the research referred to on page 7 of the document he submitted, Mr. Moran said:

As a real estate advisory firm, it is our job to advise clients on real estate issues. It is therefore imperative that we understand levels and impact of risk.

Prior to the banking crisis, we were advising our clients on the nature and impacts of the property market and how it was performing. Any advice was informed and reinforced with key primary research data. We collect and monitor research for each property sector, with some datasets going back to the early 1970s.

Any valuations ... were based on evidence of historical market values. Valuation reports are not forward-looking.

Let us take that on the one hand, and then on the other hand we take an article by a UCD academic called Morgan Kelly in December 2006 in which he stated:

Offering no evidence except wishful thinking, estate agents and politicians assure us that we have nothing to worry about: the Irish housing market can look forward to a soft landing ... If the experiences of economies similar to ours are anything to go by, we may be looking at large and prolonged falls in real house prices of the order of 40-50 per cent and a collapse of house-building activity.

Professor Kelly goes on then to instance research in the property sector in many countries from the 1970s on. His conclusion, by common consent turned out to be absolutely correct. Mr. Moran said he had done the same research, or that he was basing his prognosis on historical research as well. How does he reconcile-----