Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Hurley, you finished your statement to the inquiry and I quote:

There was a strong view on the night that the Government had one opportunity to assuage the markets. If the decisions taken were considered inadequate and failed the consequences for the banking system would be devastating and lead to very serious economic and social fallout for the country as a whole.

I will just repeat one sentence: "There was a strong view on the night that the Government had one opportunity to assuage the markets." Can I ask you, Mr. Hurley, does it sit well with a society and a system of governance that is supposed to be democratic that a government can have an economic gun put to its head by institutions in the financial markets that are unelected and, as far as the vast majority of people in Ireland and Europe are concerned, are faceless and anonymous?