Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Neary, in around September 2007, there was a lot of discussion with regard to the stamp duty and what would actually happen to it. That discussion was reflected in a very, very significant slowdown in house purchases, because people were going to wait until the next budget to get clarity on that. There was a massive significant slowdown in the construction sector. We know that the construction sector was twice the size as to what it should have been; it was in an excess of 20% of the Irish economy, twice above what would be a sustainable rate. And there were a lot of systemic consequences taking place outside of the banking sector as well. In fact, something that will be drawn upon later when this inquiry moves into a different stage, in that when the bailout and everything else arrived, it wasn't just a banking crisis that the country was facing, there was a massive structural deficit as well that had to ... that required in adjustment of in and around €30 billion, which ... and all those other signs are actually happening in around there and then.

Can you say this afternoon that what was actually being put out in that financial stability report was fair and accurate and true reflection of what the books were actually demonstrating at that time?