Mr. David McWilliams:

It is a fact, and we not only had the guarantee but also ELA. At the time of the guarantee the collateral in the banks was not regarded as worthy of collateral by the ECB. The Government could not go to the ECB and say it had a parcel of land in Westmeath which it reckoned was worth €10 million and ask for €10 million in cash because the ECB would not take it. There had to be negotiations with the ECB to say the Government needed emergency liquidity. It then began to emerge that the black hole in Anglo Irish Bank was enormous.