Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

That happened. I want people to know. People got credit cards and other bills added together. The situation is that clearly there was irresponsible lending by the banks. I am only talking on a case-by-case basis. I know one cannot generalise. I refer to cases where banks gave out loans they should not have given out based on projected incomes that were never going to materialise. They calculated that each young person to whom they gave a loan would take in three tenants at €10,000 a year each and they factored in a make-believe extra income of €30,000. That is what happened in the banks.

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