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

Under questioning two weeks ago, when Patrick Neary was in, on putting together the report and how the tone was set in it, and everything else, I put a number of propositions to him that late 2006, a discussion about the future of stamp duty had come on the table. I think it was the ... Michael McDowell, sometime in or around early September 2006, made a comment about it, the housing market was slowing down anyway but the speculation over stamp duty certainly had an immediate impact upon it, and the ... there was a slowdown in purchase as well. There was an assessment that the housing ... that the housing sector and construction sector was 24% of the Irish economy, twice of what it should have actually been, there was a whole load of information there with regard to loan-to-values, 100% mortgages, and, as was borne out later, that there was a structural deficit as well that was going to be faced because a lot of taxes were based upon consumption, and if consumption dropped, as we saw with the entry to the bailout programme, there was a shortfall of €30 billion. So when I put that proposition to Mr. Neary, Mr. Neary's response was, "Well, in the background that you have just presented there, Chairman, I think it does call the assessment into question." This is the 2000 financial ... or the 2007 report. "And you know I think reading that now and looking back on it, I think the message coming out from that statement to me is 'don't spook the horses.' That's clearly the message there." Was the report ... would you agree with Professor Neary's, or care to comment upon Mr. Neary's statement there that it was an exercise in not spooking the horses?