Michael D'Arcy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

And, specifically, I'm talking about senior executives from the financial institutions - AIB, Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank - that have before ... appeared before us previously. And one of the themes that has ran through that, Mr. Hurley ... one of the major issues was that the banks did not have access to consolidated data in relation to developers, to major projects or, in particular, to the commercial real estate sector. The commercial bank did have access to that consolidated data and it ... it would appear that the commercial ... or that the Central Bank did not choose to do anything about the massive growths in the balance sheet of the banks.

The figures that we have quoted on a number of occasions, Mr. Hurley, from '01 to '08 is a 29% to 30% year-on-year increase in the balance sheet of the banks. Could you comment why the Central Bank chose not to impact upon those enormous growths?