Professor Gregory Connor:

In other words, if they had thought "What is best for the Irish public this stage?". I think there was a political bias. In other words, I suspect - again, I was not at this Cabinet meeting - they thought it is politically in our interests. I suspect that played a role, which it obviously should not in such a high-stakes, expensive decision. They should have said, "Let's just think about this from the perspective of the public". I suspect there was a political angle to the decision because it seems such a wrong decision. I think Professor William Black, in earlier testimony, said the decision was insane. That is an overstatement. It was a wrong decision, clearly, on balance. Despite the poor information, it was wrong and I suspect the thing that tipped it into the wrong category was probably the political benefits they saw from the policy.