Mr. Rob Wright:

I think both. First of all, in the 1990s, the most important change was a breakthrough, through the social partnership, to say "let's reduce wages substantially and reduce taxes", so it is a net win. It is win for people who are working and a huge win for a more competitive Ireland. That became less dominant at the turn of the century. I think, as I mentioned, there is no single culprit. There was advice that should have been followed and I can envisage a scenario where that advice could have been very helpful, if followed, on a more restrictive fiscal policy - spending less money. If the finance advice was taken, it would have helped enormously because when the crisis hit, you saw a real impact on the business sector, but Government resources were severely strained. Typically, you would want the Government to step up to the plate and to do more at that period, yet their tax resources withered away and they had already ramped up spending by 12% a year, so there was very little room for the type of fiscal action you had in mind.

Maybe I went through that summary too quickly. I did see some evidence of some good advice - some advice that should have been taken from the Department and was not, whether that was because of political judgments or these other processes and, in part, because of the expectations you still face, actually. There are expectations in Ireland in the next election that you will be able to solve a lot of problems with resources that you will not have to solve those problems with. Unless you are ready to restrain that expectation, you will have the same challenge.