John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am going to ask one of the "discuss" type questions Senator Barrett mentioned earlier, because I do not want to be accused of asking a leading question. My question goes back to AIB. Early in 2006, senior economists within the AIB group approached Professor FitzGerald in regard to information on his analysis on the Central Bank stress tests and the professor subsequently had a meeting with them. I am asking the professor to put that on one side of the equation. On the other side, we have September 2008 and the night of the bank guarantee - on which the professor was not consulted - when senior people from AIB said they might have a liquidity problem, but they did not have a capital problem. Discuss that two and a half year period, when things would not have improved from an AIB point of view. Professor FitzGerald has indicated to the committee that the board may have had concerns at the start of 2006, such concerns that it came to him, but then, two and a half years later, when the crunch came, it appeared to say something different.