Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the statement made by the Minister for Finance in Brussels last night on the warnings by the distinguished economist Professor Morgan Kelly. The Minister said the economist must be taken seriously. He was correct in the past when nobody else was. If the Central Bank were to make contact and gain access to some of the data underpinning the professor's speech, it would be helpful. This is my experience having had Professor Kelly as a student some time ago.

During the period in which the Irish banking system was laying the seeds for the destruction that followed in 2008, namely, between 1998 and 2005, it increased lending by €192 billion, of which 1% went to manufacturing and 0.5% to agriculture. Some 81.5% was for personal lending, real estate and financial intermediation. ISME has warned that because property-obsessed banks lent to the small and medium-sized industries on the basis of property, they face the Armageddon that Professor Kelly has drawn to our attention. We need banks that have an interest in manufacturing and agriculture and they need to stop creating property bubbles. Will the Leader ask the Minister for Finance to come to the House to speak about a new banking system that is based on the productive capacity of the economy and not on property bubbles? Professor Kelly has issued a warning on a property bubble and I am delighted the Minister is taking it on board.