Ethna Tinney is a musician, a composer and a former radio producer with Lyric FM.
In 2000, as an ordinary member of the EBS, she applied for and was appointed as a member of the board of the building society.
The position gave her a unique insight into how the banking system operated, and her appearance before the banking inquiry last month stood in stark contrast to other witnesses.
Jonathan Healy of Newstalk Lunchtime caught up with Ethna Tinney in Limerick yesterday, and she spoke to him about whether she now has a better opinion of the banking inquiry and its workings than before she went through its door.
She said: "By 2004, 2005, the kinds of money that we were lending to people, ordinary people with ordinary jobs, bore no relation to the ability to pay, looking back on it, even with low interest rates, it was so dangerous."
When Jonathan asked her if she yelled stop, what the response would be, she stated: "The answer to everything was, all the other banks are doing it so we have to, to remain in the game.
"Talk about a herd mentality! And the entire herd stampeded off a cliff!"
She finished by stating in relation to the banking inquiry: "I don't think there has been enough hard evidence by CEOs of banks in this inquiry."
You can listen to her interview here:
