The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland has pulled together a line-up of the great and the good from all sectors to speak at its annual conference in Dublin next week.

But in light of comments made by John Moran, Secretary General of the Department of Finance as an invited guest at the Irish Banking Federation conference on Tuesday, we suspect his address to the surveyors will attract greatest attention.

This week he told his banker hosts they would have to start forgiving some mortgage debt that customers weren’t in a position to pay. Who knows, he may have something similarly controversial up his sleeve for the surveyors next week.

This year’s annual meeting of the construction and property professionals is somewhat ambitiously entitled Reshaping Our Future. The conference, which takes place next Thursday at Chartered Accountants House on Dublin’s Pearse Street, will have a distinct commercial focus on supporting foreign direct investment here. Offering an international perspective on the Irish mortgage market – such as it is – will be Patrick Tuttle, chief executive of Pepper Home Loans in Australia. UK-based Robert Fowlds, head of Real Estate IB, JP Morgan Cazenove, will speak on Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). At that rate let’s hope John Moran spices up proceedings.