Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 24 June 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Nexus Phase

Mr. Kevin Cardiff:

It's certainly an arguable case, Senator. If you knew that interest rates would be 3% or 4% as opposed to at 6%, then you might have been much more tempted earlier. If you remember, we went in at about the 6% interest rate and then they were negotiated down, and then the Greek thing came along and that helped even more. So, the first discussions ... I mean, they're quite early, but there were discussions on reducing the interest rate even in the spring of 2011, so very soon after the start we were back saying, "Look, you should think about this." And actually, I remember, in March 2011, Minister Noonan's first contact with Mr. Rehn. Mr. Rehn was quite positive. He was saying, "Yes, well, let's see if we can get you a reduced interest rate." But we didn't know that up front. We assumed we could do some negotiation on it, but if he knew he had a 4% interest rate when the Government was being charged 6% or 7% in the market, you might have ... it would have changed the calculus a little bit. We might have been more tempted to go in earlier, yes.

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