Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 13 November 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Overview of Banking Sector: AIB

1:00 pm

Mr. David Duffy:

From our perspective, this is not an actual credit boom but a stock and supply issue. Therefore, we are not likely to be in that circumstance. The perception we are discussing is being driven by a small number of properties in a small sector of this city. There is no doubt that price anomalies will arise as a result of the stock issue. That needs to be addressed. If we look around the country more broadly, we will see that nobody in west Cork is having a Ballsbridge experience. There has to be balance in that regard. We map every single part of the geography in terms of incremental prices and stock, at which we look, as we look at our property strategy. We believe that, with sensible lending and stock coming on stream and taking a five or ten year view of the economy, we will not see a property bubble. We will see some volatility around the stock shortage and then stabilisation.