Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 21 May 2015
Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis
Nexus Phase
Mr. John Hurley:
What the Central Bank did was it first all started in 2004, as I said in my opening statement, to deal with the incentives for property development. It advised very strongly that these would be looked at and these were. The Minister took a decision in 2004. He came back in 2005 having conducted two consultants' reports and set out a path by which these would be, by which these would be adjusted. That was one key element that was part and parcel of what the Central Bank did. The Minister responded at that time. Secondly, I set out in my opening statement the path that we expected interest rates to take and the impact that interest rates would have on the growth in credit. This was clearly set out and we knew that the mortgage rate would double. We knew it would go to 6% and we spent '04 and '05 saying this. We went to the banks with round-table discussions in December 2004 and pointed out what was going to happen the interest rate.
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