Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

They were also questioned on previous occasions about what they were doing to ensure the stability of the banking system and, in particular, asked to ensure we would not be overexposed to risky practices in lending to developers to purchase land. We received the vaguest answers to very specific questions such as what was the accounting treatment of the interest payments on loans to developers for land banks. We could not get an answer from them. Had they answered the result would have been that they would have exercised more control over the lending policies of banks to developers for inflated land prices. However, nothing happened because essentially the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service was spancelled in carrying out an inquiry. There is considerable language about output statements which are meaningless unless they get to the point. Does the Minister not agree?

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