Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairperson. If I could maybe just wrap up one question, just to conclude where we are at in the moment, and maybe just revisit some issues for a very, very brief moment as well. Just following on from Senator MacSharry's questioning, Mr. Trichet, I would like ... or invite you to comment upon a statement from former European Commissioner, Mr. Ray MacSharry, which appears on page 111 of the book, Brian Lenihan: In Calm and Crisis, published last year, and a section in that books says, "One morning I got a call about a quarter past eight and it was Brian, he told me that he was able to burn the bondholders and he was very happy because E.C.B. President Jean-Claude Trichet had told him he could do it. This would have improved Ireland's position significantly and it was going to be a big story, but later that day a now despondent Brian rang me back. He said Trichet had changed his mind because he realised that the main casualty if the bondholders were burnt would be big German and French banks." Would you care to comment on that?