Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Professor Honohan, on ... in your statement, on page 3, it deals with the options in relation to the banks and the capital buffer that the banks would require. The ... option 1, which you outline, is asking the banks up an unquestionable "ample capital buffer" to cover all eventualities, which you say "would have triggered an immediate loss of market confidence in the Government's finances (putting paid, for example, to the chances of the Government being able to avoid an IMF Programme)." The second alternative, you say, is basically, where they provide ... where capital is provided or is acquired by the banks to cover the first tranche of the NAMA losses but you say that, in doing that, which you say is "The only safe way forward seemed to continue to rely on ELA while also pursuing all possible steps to rebuild confidence ... and recognizing that recourse to an IMF Programme would be the fall-back position." Now, it was in March-----