Professor Patrick Honohan:

Look ... yes, I mean these ... I think you can't operate a monetary policy in a stable way if the Central Bank is answerable to the Department of Finance. And that's what happens in some countries, mostly now developing countries, that the central bank is simply, more or less, a division of the department of finance and is answerable to the Minister. But what ... independence ... it's not total independence. There's a clear mandate. You're there to do these things and you're answerable, in our case, to the Oireachtas for matters, the Central Bank of Ireland is answerable to this committee and the other committees of the Oireachtas, so independence doesn't mean a complete free-for-all to do whatever one likes to do. There's a mandate ... several mandates, a detailed mandate.