Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Well, I mean you can only bring your political compass to bear on that in terms of in terms of the circumstances at the time. I mean , you know, it wasn't any secret, every party was in possession of information about the property issue at that time and you know it got to such a stage ... I recall making a speech to the Association of European Journalists - I made a number of them at the time. That was on 11 January 2007, or it's reported in The Irish Timeson 11 January 2007, where I drew attention to the fact that our exports were beginning to dim in circumstances where more and more of our revenues were dependent on transactions related to the construction sector. And it was attacked at the time, as I have it here, "Rabbitte talks down the economy" and, you know, some of the usual criticism. The climate was not very receptive. That was on 11 January 2007. I gave a few interviews at the time to that affect. Arguably, I should have the courage of my convictions and stayed with it, but it was not a winner.