Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

And, Mr. Neary, the Central Bank and regulator sent about 80,000 pages of documentation to the banking inquiry, which have been gone through forensically. And on the issue of the concentration limits, for example, extensive correspondence was available between the Financial Regulator and the banks. The concentration limits were breached in a number of cases, as you know. There are letters on file from the banks, essentially stating their case that they felt the risks were acceptable, and asking the regulator to go away. The summary that we have of the correspondence on sectoral limits: 2003, no conclusion in the documentation; 2004, no conclusion in the documentation; 2005, no conclusion in the documentation; 2006, no conclusion in the documentation. There seems to have been a distinct lack of follow-up by the Financial Regulator in dealing with that issue of the banks lending too much money to property and construction, despite you having the explicit and direct tools to do so.