Dr. Michael Somers:

I first came across the problems in the banking system when I was still in the NTMA when the first PricewaterhouseCoopers report was done. At that stage it was a question of lending to developers and builders. I was shocked when I saw the figures. It was lending of billions to, effectively, individuals. I had a difficult enough relationship with AIB in the NTMA because it was not particularly supportive of our bond issuance. We were borrowing as little as €100 million to try to fund the State and suddenly I found that AIB and the other banks had lent billions to those people. I was in a state of absolute shock. I could not believe it. Then the pension fund which we had carefully built up to meet the pensions of people in this country over a long period had to be raided to capitalise AIB. Approximately €15 billion of the State pension fund went to it.