Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 13 May 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Nexus Phase

Mr. Tom Parlon:

Well, I think, as my colleague said earlier, a lot of commercial exposure by banks was in buildings that had been maybe built for €20 million and been sold for €100 million based upon, sort of, the rising economy and so on. So in terms of ... if you take the other commercial in construction that happened in terms of either foreign direct investment, some of the biggest plants in the ... in Europe were constructed here on a contract price and probably the main contractors making 3% or 4% or 5% on them, so you know I don't know the ... When we look back and, as we say, it's much easier looking back, the notion that we could consider building 90,000 houses in a particular year with our population, you know, doesn't seem ... seems ridiculous now. At the time, even after the event, you know, it didn't appear to be, we were-----