Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome Mr. Roebben to his first meeting at this committee. I am sure it will not be the last meeting that he will have here. Mr. Roebben's colleagues, Ms Dara Deering, Mr. Barry D'Arcy and Mr. Brendan Mahon are very welcome. Some the witnesses may be familiar with this meeting format from previously and perhaps they have looked at transcripts and recordings of earlier meetings. The opening statement was relatively upbeat and the witness is fairly positive about the economy. I am struck by the positivity in Mr. Roebben's statement compared with that of his predecessor who, if I am right, indicated that we are closer to the next recession than we are to the last one. That line has stuck with me ever since he made that point. While Ireland is relatively fortunate with corporation tax receipts, low interest rates on our national debt and so on, there are many uncertainties including Brexit, as outlined by the witness.

Since our last meeting with KBC I have heard anecdotally from people around the country that lending has almost stopped and people are very wary of taking on debt, which is possibly not a bad thing in some ways, but there is much less take-up. Many people are worried about Brexit, the US-China trade wars, stock market decline and various other matters. What are Mr. Roebben's thoughts on where the economy is going? Could he outline to us the nature of the lending KBC is engaging in and whether it is less than anticipated?