Michael D'Arcy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Professor FitzGerald for his openness in the way he has come in and addressed the committee this morning, which is refreshing.

I wish to ask him about - we touched upon it earlier - the latent influence. We can see from Professor FitzGerald's reaction that when somebody picked up the phone to express dissatisfaction with an ESRI report, he was furious. He touched upon it earlier when he said that the former Taoiseach - I presume he means the former Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern - between 2005 and 2007 was very strong in his criticisms of anybody who had things to say that were negative towards the Irish economy.

Is there a different method of influence? If one takes the ESRI medium-term report in 2005, the Davy report by Rossa White in 2006 and the RTE programme in which Professor FitzGerald participated in 2007, is there a different way of influencing people who are either fully employed by the State, be it the regulator's office, Central Bank or the Department of Finance, or part-funded by the State? With that latent influence, if one says something that is perceived to be against the economy or against the workings of the economy, a different version of influence applies. I ask Professor FitzGerald for his opinion on that.