Arthur Spring (Kerry North-West Limerick, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Governor the very best on his new horizons and thank him for the service he has done the State.

I start with a question on property prices and the activity in which the banks are involved. We recently extracted from some of the banks the fact that their working capital provisions were down to approximately 10% of what they had been at the height of the boom. One could derive from that statistic that there is not a great deal of construction going on or site finance. If one was to be cynical about it, is there an attempt to control the market for property - supply and demand - and, ultimately, repair their balance sheets? Is there anything the Central Bank can do to ensure a typical bank licensed by the State through the Central Bank will make provision for the marketplace to ensure supply comes on stream?