Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Dr. Donovan mentioned in his opening statement why the IMF may not have been more explicit when it came to sounding the warning bell for Ireland. He states, "There could have been pressures both within the IMF and vis a vis the authorities to dismiss the possibility of such very negative outcomes." Dr. Donovan says this on page 8 of his opening statement. I know Dr. Donovan is only exploring possibilities, but does he raise it as a possibility because he encountered it in his own work in other countries?

Further to this, when we look at the reports coming from the IMF, we see that it identified a number of the shortcomings and the dangers, as did the ESRI. However, when it came to the reports coming out after the executive board had seen them, we also see it commending performance and talking about a soft landing. There are two points to the question, namely, interference Dr. Donovan may have experienced and then what can we read into the two messages coming out of the IMF reports vis-à-viswhat the staff were seeing on the ground and what the executive board was reporting back to the Government.