They Say:

• According to Brian Lenihan TD, we all wanted the property boom
• A small majority of the population talked down the economy, sure it had nothing to do with over-zealous lending allowing artificially inflated house prices created through hype and market manipulation by developers and VI's

Riposte:
The government contributed to this boom by letting the market rise in an unsustainable way by:

• Tinkering with the market
• Not regulating the market
• Not regulating bank lending
• Not putting a modern minimum standard in place before the biggest housing boom in our history
• Encouraging investment in the property market with incentives
• Allowing planning to be decided by partisan local councils
• The government was more concerned with calling those who questioned the wisdom of the housing boom and the governments support for it unpatriotic and suicidal.
• Everyone who did not think all was rosy with Ireland Inc. were called Doom-mongers or "Doom-and-Gloom" merchants, and the media were complicit in this.

Also to blame: Banks, Estate Agents, Lack of Regulation, the National Media

• Corporate greed from the banks led to blindly throwing money at property developers and purchasers. They are far from blameless.
• The Central Bank is supposed to oversee the banks. It's softly softly approach has failed miserably.
• Estate agents were free to use underhand tactics to inflate the values of property
• The media faithfully reported every positive PR release from a Bank, Estate agent or Developer as "news"

But, we voted them back in!

Riposte:

• Not everyone voted them in
• Plenty of people were rich on paper due to the property boom which led to a feel-good factor
• The opposition ran a very poor campaign