Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Dáil finished late last night. Our final division was at 2.45 a.m. For my sins, I read the Central Bank's document afterwards. It is very sad. I was waiting for my "Morning Ireland" interview and I thought if I fell asleep I might pull a Conor Lenihan, so I decided I was better to try to stay awake.

There was an issue with the risks of the bank. It is stated in the Central Bank document that the concentration of lending to residential and commercial real estate represents a vulnerability. It states:

Approximately 65% of Irish Banks loan portfolios are accounted for by residential mortgages while a further 11% are for commercial real estate. Coupled with the outstanding vulnerabilities in the household sector and still high proportion of households in negative equity it is clear that Irish banks remain vulnerable to any reversal in trends in real estate prices.

I always knew about that vulnerability in terms of prices, and I am particularly concerned about a reversal of prices in commercial property. In regard to the concentration of lending for AIB, where does the bank sit? The Central Bank is stating that across the banking sector, 65% of the loan portfolios are for residential mortgages while 11% are commercial. I have been thinking about this. I sat on the banking inquiry, and I now wonder how this was seen in the context of Anglo Irish Bank, which was a monoline bank? If we have banks that are so heavily concentrated on property loans, we have numerous banks, which have similar practices to the former Anglo Irish Bank.