Dan Neville
Question:28 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Finance his views on the exceptionally high growth in credit; and if he will take any steps to curb it; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18095/00]
Written Answers. - Credit Growth.
The monitoring of growth of private sector credit in Ireland and prudential regulation of credit institutions in general is a matter for the Central Bank and I, as Minister for Finance, have no function in such regulation.
The 1999 annual report of the bank states, at page 10, that in the light of the continuing high level of growth in lending to the private sector and the unprecedented scale of increase in asset prices, the primary focus of banking supervision remains on credit risk. The report adds that the Central Bank is monitoring lending practices carefully and that particular attention is being given to the ability of credit institutions to adjust to changes in market conditions.
As I have stated in the past, the growth in credit reflects Ireland's economic and employment growth which has been a multiple of that in our EU partners – over the last five years real growth in the Irish economy has averaged 9% per annum compared with 2.2% in the Euro 11 area. In the same period, Irish employment grew by an average of almost 4.8% per annum compared with 0.8% in the Euro 11 area.