Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 22 July 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Nexus Phase

Mr. David Begg:

The board of the bank was concerned certainly about the expansion of the construction sector in the economy. There were different points of view on the board. There was, as I mentioned, I think in response to the Chairman earlier on, one point of view held by somebody, one of the board members who had worked in the property sector all his life and was quite influential, and that view was that like, you know, house prices in Ireland historically have risen and plateaued and risen again when times changed, but they have never collapsed, so it's not part of our DNA, if you like, to have a collapse. Now, at the same time, there was definitely another board member who took a directly contrary point of view and then a range of members who had views, kind of, in between all of that. So, you know, it wouldn't be fair to come to the conclusion, I think, that there was no robust discussion of these problems at the level of the board.

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