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

Yes. But you then go on and give information in your statement in relation to loans to customers between 2004 and 2007 and Ulster Bank, which you were in charge of, extended a loan increase of 172% for the four years.

Now, Patrick Honohan, the Governor of the Central Bank, writing in the Economic and Social Reviewof summer 2009, said and I quote, "A very simple warning sign used by most regulators to identify a bank exposed to increased risk is rapid balance sheet growth. An annual real growth rate of 20% is often taken as the trigger." We had evidence here from Mr. Bill Black, a veteran regulator from the United States, of a similar nature. I know balance sheet growth is not exactly identical to bank lending, but there is a close correlation. So, should you have known that the rapid increase in lending, much of it for property, could have led to serious risks which is what happened?