Mr. William Beausang:

Well, I don't think I can add anything more than what is in the Merrill Lynch memorandum. I'd no direct discussions with Merrill Lynch or with the NTMA, I think, in advance of the guarantee coming into effect.

I mean, you know, personally at the time the guarantee was introduced, I wouldn't have had a kind of a deep knowledge or awareness of, let's say, the distinction between dated and undated subordinated debt. And indeed, it was only subsequently when I was reporting to the European Commission to DG Competition in the context of our state aid application that I gathered information from the NTMA from an e-mail from Brendan McDonagh that I think I submitted with my written evidence and also presumably an oral briefing from Merrill Lynch that explained, I suppose, the market reason, the funding reason the sovereign reason why dated subordinated debt should be included and why that case should be made to the Commission for the inclusion of dated subordinated debt. I wasn't present at any discussions on the 29-30 September where this was discussed. If they were discussed at that meeting.