Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

This has been summer of real reputational damage to the economic side of the Irish State. We have the Apple case, a massive revision of our GDP figures and a third lesser, but not insignificant, issue was the failure of some of our clearing banks to pass the EU stress tests. They were among the few banks on the warning lists in the stress tests which took place earlier in the summer. In its economic analysis, had the Central Bank expected the situation of our banks to be as it was in the stress tests? In the letter the Governor of the Central Bank sent to the Minister for Finance, he states the credit cycle remains subdued and this is reflected in the current zero value of the countercyclical capital buffer. I would appreciate if the witnesses would explain what exactly is a zero value of a countercyclical capital buffer? In the Central Bank's economic analysis, how does it see the state of our banks and the credit environment affecting our economic prospects? I will ask more questions later if possible.