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

-----if those eerily prefigure the Irish crisis that we have come through.

My second quote is from a witness before this inquiry, gentlemen, a former bank economist and commentator, David McWilliams. I noticed none of you mentioned Mr. McWilliams in your introductory remarks, you did mention Professor Kelly. Let me quote from the evidence David McWilliams gave to this inquiry. He said:

I just want to make some opening remarks about the period in question, starting with 2000 and going up to 2008 and beyond. [I'll just skip a little bit and then continue] In fact, I probably spent the best part of a decade trying to warn as many people as possible on as many platforms as possible that our property market was going to crash and that when it did, our banking system would be in a situation where money would fly out of the system and lead to a banking crisis. [...] I made documentaries about this. I had [my own] TV show [on TV3]. [...] I warned people at every juncture that our housing market was a credit bubble and credit bubbles bust and it is not a matter of if they bust but when they bust. [...] When I hear the view that nobody saw this coming or that this was in some way a shock or we were taken by surprise, I do not believe that is the case. I think the Irish property crash and the banking crash were both incredibly predictable and absolutely preventable.

And Mr. McWilliams then refers to a "Prime Time" interview he did in October of 2003 which he says was watched by 400,000 people. And in that he said, and I quote:

The Irish housing market is a scam. It is an enormous financial swindle that could potentially confine an entire generation of young Irish workers to years of bad debt. Far from being a reflection of economic vitality and fundamental demand the housing bubble is, in the main, a vacuous financial confidence trick that has been foisted upon us by an alliance of banks and the landowners.

Today, in Ireland, the price of the average house is close to ten times the average wage. This represents an economic failure on a monumental scale. Behind this nonsense is excessive and irresponsible lending from our financial institutions. The situation would be laughable if it were not so serious.

Gentlemen, could I ask you to reflect on the two quotes, one from 1998 and then one from Mr. McWilliams some time ago and to give me your reaction? Why did you not understand these basics, that these other economists did?