Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I have one final question, which is in some ways related, on the dangers of leveraged finance. Several reports have been produced recently. The IMF warned that speculative excesses in some financial markets may be approaching a threatening level. For evidence, we may look no further than the $1.3 trillion global market for so-called leveraged loans. The Bank of England has suggested that is an underestimate and the ECB has also pointed to a significant relaxation of underwriting standards for US and European leveraged loans being observed in recent years. The likelihood of international contagion and system-wide spillovers is elevated in the context of a global search for yield and the figures for European leveraged loans indicates that we are almost at the levels of 2007. There was a steep decline in 2007 to 2009, inclusive, and then it went back up again. What is the danger and what relevance does it have for Ireland?