Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Okay, can I move on to a different thing. John Hurley was Governor of the Central Bank in your time, yes? In his opening statement, on page 12, he said, "I was not aware of contrarian views within the Central Bank, which differed in substance from the Bank's overall assessment." And again said, "Views, which set out a different risk assessment, were not made known to me or to the Board in my presence." Now, Mr. Tom O'Connell, who was head of economics and research within the Central Bank from 2005 to 2010, in his evidence, page 3, said:

While the Central Bank in its public utterances presented a low-key assessment of what was happening, that is not to say that it was not fully aware of the major excesses ... Patrick Honohan’s report acknowledged that the three major excesses were well recognised in the [financial stability reports]; [that's] the huge increase in bank lending ... concentration ... [on] property ... and the ... reliance by the banks on potentially volatile wholesale funding ...

Mr. O'Connell then says:

In fact, I should say that one member of the board did have grave doubts, to the effect that I can recollect his words still ringing in my ear, "It was all a house of cards and would all end in tears". However, his views appear not to have had any impact on policy-making in the bank.

And Mr. Honohan said again in page 10 of his report, "More generally, a rather defensive approach was adopted to external critics or contrarians." And finally on the same subject, Mr. Considine, the Nyberg report in its executive summary said:

A minority of people indicated that contrarian views were both difficult to maintain during the long boom and unhealthy to present to boards or superiors. A number of people stated that had they implemented and consistently supported contrarian policies, they may ultimately have lost their jobs, positions or reputations. Other signs were also noted pointing to sanctioning diverging or contrarian opinions as well as self-censorship because of this.

Now, can I ask you starting in the Central Bank first, were you aware of people who had an opposite view to what was generally accepted in relation to the credit growth, the property speculation, etc.?