Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

One cannot look at Bank of Ireland and AIB in isolation from the whole banking sector. The critical factor in the banking sector is that there has been a substantial de-leveraging by the externally owned banks in Ireland. That has led to a considerable reduction in the overall amount of credit. Taken with the stresses in Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank, it clearly points the way towards the NAMA operation in terms of making these banks far more vigorous in expanding their operations.

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