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

Thank you very much Senator. If I can maybe deal with one question myself there Mr. Somers, or Dr. Somers before we move on ... and this comes back to your witness statement there where under the C3(c) heading, the "Effectiveness of reviews of banks’ loans books and capital adequacy", and you give a very strong line there when you said that when you saw the PwC review of the banks' loan books:

At that stage the damage had been done and the only question was the scale of the disaster. The early review underestimated the size of the ultimate losses; much larger State support was later required.

If you could maybe outline for the committee, Mr. or Dr. Somers, your view on the scale and type of lending by financial institutions in the PwC reports you reviewed.