Professor David Farrell:

In large part I am treating this rather generally, but in my paper I noted one of the observations from the 2011 inquiry report was the sense the Department of Finance was trying to push against an agenda in the 2006 to 2008 period but did not get its way. It stated it was not being nearly pro-active enough but at least there was evidence of differing views in various Departments. Obviously it is counterfactual and we will never know, but I wonder what would have happened if we had much greater investigation by relevant Oireachtas committees during the period. They might have unpicked the division of opinion across Departments.