Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Went, just to continue the theme, since you mentioned philosophical, etc., could I ask you if you maybe might ... if the situation could be summed up as follows, that your group lending grew aggressively, according to a PTSB report which is in our documents, from €12.9 billion - "lending grew aggressively from €12.9bln in 2001 to €39.2bln in 2007" - and, in that same time, customer accounts grew from €9.5 billion to €13.6 billion? The point being made then that short-term funding became a huge need for your organisation. And is it the case that that happened, that you went beyond the bounds, because as ... a number of contributors here have given evidence of cut-throat competition between the banks for profit maximisation, and that blinded you to the dangers? Would that be true or-----