3.2  Fiscal issues  In addition to the imbalances which were being created in property and banking, there were also less visible problems being built up in the fiscal area. There was both a particular and general aspect to these problems. The particular aspect stemmed from a growing reliance on revenues generated by the booming housing market.
This was not just an Irish phenomenon, however. In many other countries, during this period, government revenues also benefitted from surging house prices, financial asset prices or strong growth in the financial services industry. We are now more aware that these gains are, to a large degree, cyclical, and need to be viewed as such.