Professor Patrick Honohan:

Of course they could be lying to me. There were not very many people in the room. I know them all. They could be lying. They could say, "I did know but I did not choose to tell anybody". In another note prepared by a senior official in the Department of Finance about a meeting of officials in September - maybe the Minister was there - he states Anglo Irish Bank might be €8.5 billion after capital. I asked the person involved if that was what he thought. He replied, "No, that was wrong". Maybe he meant €8.5 billion inclusive of capital, meaning the shareholder would have covered it all. That is the only evidence that I found written or oral. No one said to me, “You know so-and-so, he was saying that”.

This is a wider point but it is useful to say it here. A number of directors of the Central Bank and the Financial Regulator said to me in evidence that they had put out warning signs. Indeed, others said, “You know so-and-so, he was always warning and you will find it in the minutes”. But, of course, the minutes were very summary and, to their frustration, these people’s warnings - these Cassandras - are not noted in the minutes. There were people warning but it is a long way away from warning to saying on the night you are going to be hit for tens of billions for this thing.