Dr. Donal Donovan:

Obviously, one cannot state ex ante whether insurance would be worthwhile. One way to consider this is in the context of car insurance. Just because one does not have an accident in a particular year even though one had taken out motor insurance, one would not necessarily state that it was a bad idea to take it out. We were of the view that this was a good idea, provided the terms and conditions were reasonable. I am sure the Government considered many aspects prior to making its decision. One can imagine one aspect was that at the time the Government took its decision, the position regarding what would be the terms and conditions was not entirely clear. I would imagine that the position was also unclear as to when these could be clarified and to the type of procedures to which such a credit line would be subject. The latter was largely to do with the political situation across Europe in general and in Germany in particular.