Ms Fidelma Clarke:

I think I would and have described it as excessive competition. Absolutely there was excessive competition in the market, which led to downward pressure on the society's core business, which led it to take decisions about what it could do to remain viable, which led it to, I believe, agree to a proposal to step up lending to a land and development sector at a time that, it transpired, was the very height of the market, unknown at the time. That is how I would describe it.