Mr. David Duffy:

Thank you, Senator. I would be thoughtful about how my opinion ... I think when I look at the bank guarantee I look at the international world which I was more relevantly a participant in at that time. I think in Ireland's situation you were suffering the consequences of what was happening globally, which was then exaggerated by the composition of the assets which each bank had here at the time. Many of those situations involved banks being allowed to go under and many of those situations involved banks being rescued. There were different logics applied in each of the circumstances. I think in Ireland's case, were one or two banks allowed to go under, that probably would have created quite a risk for this country but maybe it would have been a position where there was finality a lot sooner ... but is impossible to predict.

There was no question in my mind that a guarantee of sorts had to be applied. Banks don't make anything, they offer a service which is providing funding for commercial activities. If there is a failure or a lack of confidence in a bank then there is no control that you have over that and your deposits will run out of the bank. So if there wasn't a guarantee of some kind - I can't form an opinion as to whether it was the right guarantee or not - but if there was not a guarantee of some kind, the confidence in the banking system here didn't exist and it could have led to a more dramatic and severe outcome.