Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The professor is entitled to his view.

One of the things that the banking inquiry is looking at, which is the nexus, is the relationships between the State, between banks and between being regulatory, development and so on. The reason I asked about DEPFA is that on the weekend of the decision of the guarantee Professor Honohan has said that the minds of the authorities were concentrated by the issue of DEPFA.

A director in DEPFA was second assistant general in the Department of Finance. He was the professor's predecessor because he was Governor of the Central Bank. He was also a director in one of the biggest banks that went bust in this State. What does that relationship mean in terms of the overall problems in the banking crisis? Professor Honohan mentioned, in his sub-note No. 12, the view in which bankers were held by politicians and so on. I ask him to elaborate on the issue.