Dr. Donal Donovan:

We know the ECB was strongly opposed and it would remain opposed. Let us suppose Mr. Geithner had not intervened. If the IMF had come strongly to the view that the burning of some bondholders would have been desirable and necessary - I have no sense what the EU Commission thought about this issue at the time - something might well have happened. However, I return to what I said earlier. The importance of this issue can be exaggerated in numerical terms. We seem to be talking about the potential for burning bondholders and thereby saving approximately €6 billion for the Irish taxpayer. That is in no way a trivial amount but it is not €64 billion.