Professor Alan Ahearne:

Not long after that I was invited to speak to the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party which, I think, was in Galway. I assume it was on the back of that programme. I spoke about the international experience of house price booms and busts at that meeting. I did not speak with any officials. In regard to the property market, I did not get any calls from people in the industry. I would have socially bumped into people who worked in that industry and I remember somebody saying to me shortly afterwards, "There are a lot of guys gunning for you after what you have said" - jokingly, I take it.

I think this was in April 2007. Somebody on the ground was saying to me that the bubble burst last summer, and that this had been the best kept secret in Ireland for the past nine months.