Professor John FitzGerald:

In the ESRI you do not deal with politicians, you deal with the Administration. Politicians do not particularly want to deal with us - we are not necessarily helpful to them. It is not a marriage made in heaven although it is not divorce either. After the publication of the investment priorities report, I did at least one meeting with the then Minister for Finance, former Deputy Brian Cowen, explaining our point of view and he explained his point of view. He was not somebody who was going to take offence or whatever. He was very good to deal with, but that would have been just at one meeting. Even as a civil servant - I was a junior civil servant - one almost never got to see the Minister. I am trying to think about whether I met the Minister for Finance. I did meet Brian Lenihan on a number of occasions and I have itemised when I did so, but I do not think I met a Minister for Finance as part of a specific meeting otherwise in the 30 years that I worked in the institute.