Mr. Michael Torpey:

I appreciate that, thank you, Deputy. And, indeed, I was in Ulster Bank until the end of 2007 and there were the beginnings of the emergence of liquidity stresses in the marketplace at the end of 2007 but nothing at that point that would point towards a severe liquidity crisis in the marketplace. Given my absence from the financial sector, and indeed from the country, for much of 2008, I don't have a fact pattern as to how things emerged through 2008, so very much in the opinion space I would have to say that to the extent that the liquidity position of the banking system, in aggregate, deteriorated to a level where there was a crisis imminent, I can understand why the authorities would have had to look towards taking very severe action. I'm not competent to opine on the appropriateness of the action taken because I simply don't have the information about the detailed events that led to that action and the action has to be a consequence of the circumstances.