Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wouldn't purport myself to have the same level of experience and knowledge that Mr. Daly would have, and in that ... I grew up in a council estate, my parents bought their home through a tenant purchase scheme, so I don't come with any big property background, but what I hear him saying here, very simply, is, there is an issue of acceleration and deceleration in the property market, and there's an issue of inflation and deflation in the property market.

And what was happening is that inflation was running so quick in the property market and development was at a very accelerated level, so it wasn't the case that a housing development was completed and now sold. It's that there was a notional value on property that was interpreted right all the way through the process. So, a developer could develop something in a part of Cork or a part of Dublin and, even though it's now not completed - and we've seen this with housing developments as well as they were going through phases - new values were given to them. So, even before the development is completed, a valuation would be placed upon it even though it's now not even out in the market - there's no rents coming in or anything else - and that equity - notional equity, albeit - was now being used as leverage against another loan.