Professor Patrick Honohan:

It was a catalyst but not a cause. It was a catalyst for when it happened, the circumstances and the fact that when it went down, it did so in a very adverse international environment. Had there been no bad news, had the world economy and the Irish economy been doing fine, and had our banking system fallen over for some domestic reason, would Europe have rushed to help us? Although Europe did help us to some extent, in the circumstance I have described it would have been absorbed much more easily. However, Europe has many other problems that are much more severe than Ireland. The environment would have been different.