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

Okay. That brings me to page 9 of your written statement, Governor, I quote from the top paragraph in relation to the cost of:

In order to get an overall cost to Ireland of the Ireland-specific banking boom and bust we would need to model how the economy might have performed in the presence of prudent pre-crisis banking practice. A precise quantification of this is impossible, but it is clear that the net cost is well in excess of €100 billion and still growing ...

And then you refer to an Irish Timesarticle, which I have read, in ... earlier this year. Could I ask you would you just go a little bit further into which social segments of society, how did the burden fall social-wise? For example, the so-called rich lists in the Sunday Independentand The Sunday Timeswould say that in the course of the crisis the top 300 wealthiest people added €35 billion to their wealth. At the same time, the ESRI - "Crisis, Austerity, Recovery: Income Distribution through the Great Recession in Ireland" ... that the poorest 10% of the population suffered an income contraction of 22% or 27% ... taking housing costs. If I go to page 4 of your statement and you say, Governor, "mar a deir an seanfhocal, cibé cé ólfas, 's é Domhnall a íocfas."