Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

Senator, the relationship with the NTMA was primarily a relationship between the chief executive of the NTMA and the Minister for Finance. There was no reporting lines from the NTMA to the Department of Finance to the Central Bank, the regulator. We were a completely separate body. We had to look after our own ... our own business and whatever discussions would have happened, I can't say, because I wasn't party to those discussions. But, certainly when we set out our view on our deposits, it wasn't just with respect to Irish banks, it was with respect to banks all over the world where we had deposits.