Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To be fair, I do not believe that Mr. Masding has been overconfident. His approach is more welcome than coming in brashly would be. It is better to be straight up with us.

I will pick up on one of his comments to Deputy McGrath. He stated that we were closer to the end of the positive cycle than to the start. While 2008 was 11 years ago, it is probably alive and strong in many people's memories. Will Mr. Masding elaborate on his statement? Six months ago, the chief executive of KBC told the committee something similar, namely, that we were "closer to the next downturn than to the previous downturn". Where are we going? Will it be a proper recession or just a slowdown? There was great talk in 2006 and 2007 about plateauing, not growing at the same rate, soft landings and other such phrases. Mr. Masding might not have been in Ireland, but I am sure he has heard people mentioning them. What is his prediction for where we are heading?