Professor Patrick Honohan:

Our impression was that it was quite important and even today the Department of Finance officials or the Minister often will have communications. We meet regularly with officials and then will say, "What about this and this?" and they may make some good points and these will be taken into account. In this case, I think it might not have been the only reason but it was probably the end of the matter. I could imagine, although maybe I am just extrapolating rather than having concrete evidence, that that was the end of it. The Minister's letter would have been the end of it. That does not mean that there was something wrong with that per se. The Minister has a legitimate interest. There is no evidence provided that it is politically motivated or that some friend of the Minister thought something on it. It is a policy that the development of the financial sector is important and the Central Bank had to take account of the development of the financial sector. I do not think it was a good decision and I think the Minister's intervention was an important one. We included that at some length to illustrate the fact that the regulator was not acting single-mindedly, in the prudential interest nor in full independence.