Professor Patrick Honohan:

Let me frame it another way. We work within a system of national and international law. This gives power to various classes of people. Within this, Ireland, the Irish people and the Irish Government must find the optimal solution in regard to the official debt. Far from stating it should just be accepted and paid I have tried to convey the intensity with which we have negotiated what we think will be at the outer limit of what we could possibly get from that particular window.