Dr. Donal Donovan:

That is a good question. It does not seem to be the case in the Irish tradition that whatever individuals may have been in charge at a particular public institution when there were policy failures see it as their duty to move aside, nor is it suggested to them that it is their duty. That is a broader question about how we assess collective responsibility, and individual responsibility. Ministers take decisions, but what is the role of civil servants? It is a very big issue. In the case of the banks, though, there was a certain - or, more than certain, a fairly substantial - move towards encouraging those who were perceived to be responsible to move on. That happened to a fairly substantial extent. The issue of civil service and responsibility is a deep one, and I do not know the answer to that question. In the IMF, decisions are taken collectively. There is huge internal debate among the staff, more than many people might think. It is not a monolithic institution at all. Ultimately, however, it is a collective institution, so one cannot say Mr. X was personally responsible for a decision on whether to burn bondholders, for example. That is not the way the IMF works, for good or bad.