Mr. Tom Considine:

Well, Deputy, I think, you know, I, as you say, I've been around a long time. I never remember a time when there weren't voices threatening, you know, or listing out risks and we listed them out as well. The Minister for Finance in particular, in the run-up to the 2006 budget repeatedly - and in the budget material itself - stressed the risks but, at the end of the day, you have to come to a conclusion. And the conclusion that was arrived at was that the system had sufficient buffers in it to cater for any likely shock. Now that has turned out to be wrong but I heard, at one of your sessions here last week, somebody saying this was a one in 100-year event. But, whether it was or it wasn't, it was certainly a very unusual occurrence and, I suppose, that ... the only thing I can say to you is I didn't see that as ... as the likely outcome.