Mr. Charlie McCreevy:

We did in the 2003 budget, as has been ... and I've given evidence on and, as per the chart given earlier ... put up there, actually the amount of money in Government current spending that we had for 2003 was less than actually had been recommended by the Department in June of the previous year.

And yet ... and you said ... when the property sector ... no one anticipating the property sector collapsing. What I was taught the whole time, for years, that there was going to be, what became the famous phrase, "a soft landing", so there was no one in the Department of Finance, the Central Bank, or anywhere else, saying, "There's going to be a total collapse in the property sector." Not just housing, but in all other sectors as well. Nobody came along with that ... look, even the ESRI weren't predicting that as late as 2007, I think, never mind predicting it in 2003, 2004.