But given how badly banks misjudged risk-management in the post-millennial boom in Ireland, it is hard to deny that having a rule constraining LTV and LTI could avoid the re-emergence of this kind of problem in the future.
Even in the absence of a credit-driven bubble, there is much to be said for bringing back some rules of this type, limiting the share of their mortgage lending that is at high LTV and LTI rates, now that the property market has stopped falling and has indeed turned around with a bit of a bang in Dublin.