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

Mr. Smith, if I could turn to yourself, just in conclusion, and in a more general way. I think you hinted yourself and certainly your counterparts in the other three major auditing firms are adamant that no one, as it was put today, could have foreseen the collapse in the banking system and the crisis and the crash that resulted from the bubble, but could I just put it to you: Ernst and Young is a massive international organisation, you are in 150 countries, you have 190,000 employees, your income gross in 2014 was €27.4 billion, I guess ... or dollars ... so you're a huge organisation with huge resources and expertise. Now, Mr. Smith, considering, for example, the history of your company in the United States, which would have seen the loans and savings debacle in the '80s and the '90s and the huge crash that happened there and then in the Scandinavian countries in the late' 80s and the '90s, Sweden for example, a modern capitalist, industrialised society with a huge bank ... banking crisis, all as a result of speculative lending and of excessive rates of growth, would it be reasonable or not to say to a company like yourselves, you should have seen that was happening in Ireland was really a replica of what caused all these previous bubbles and disasters? And, indeed, others did see in advance. I just put it to you for comment, if you like.