Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Well clearly it was never enough in the sense that the banking system was highly exposed. The Central Bank itself, as you know, in their stability reports of 2005 and 2006, they highlighted the vulnerabilities that were there, the excessive growth in credit, the excessive reliance on property, the excessive reliance on overseas funds. But none the less, they concluded, the Central Bank and Financial Regulator, that none the less the system was robust.

And in 2006 they actually said that it was more robust than it had been in 2005, which was, was probably hard to understand, and, you know, we did have the Governor of the Central Bank in before committees and, you know, the picture was one that, yes there was high growth but the, you know, look at the value of the assets on the other side of the balance sheet. So I think there was an inadequate probing of, of this issue by those who were the regulators. From our point of views, I suppose, we saw the vulnerabilities but, we highlighted, I suppose, particularly what was happening in, in the public sector, where an alarming dependence on construction was emerging as a base of public spending, as well as, if you like, individual credit decisions.