Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 13 May 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Nexus Phase

Mr. Liam Kelleher:

It's a good question, Deputy. I'm not sure, as early as 2003, that anybody would have wanted to do anything differently. I think it is later on, 2006, that the contrarian voices were making up their statements, very much a minority, but nonetheless they were there, and we didn't pay the attention to them that we should have. That's one thing I would do differently. The other thing that I would certainly have learned from the whole period and subsequently, is just how essential the issue you were previously talking about, working capital, or was being talked about earlier, is to the construction industry. Really, you know, a certain level of credit, a certain level of working capital, is essential to the construction industry. There was too much of it in the period you're referring to, and then it disappeared, totally, and there was too little of it.