Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 6 May 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Nexus Phase

Mr. Richie Boucher:

Again, like I've said ... like I wasn't ... that was outside of the roles I was in at that time but clearly, as hindsight has shown, it wasn't. I think there was a desire - and that was reflected in subsequent minutes - to, in particular, recognise there were risks ... or what we would have described as amateur investors. There was controls put on lending to people who had certain income levels, etc. And ... so there was a desire to limit the exposure to certain income brackets. That was a ... it was an enlightened self-interest rather than a social good issue, to be honest because we felt that the ... people mightn't have the ability to support the property if the rental didn't transpire.