Professor Patrick Honohan:

Well, I think that the evidence that you've got here from David Doyle and Kevin Cardiff I think conveys really the essence of what that remark was hinting at. I think that they had taken the view, in the Department of Finance, that all that bank stuff is being dealt with by the Central Bank and the Financial Regulator so that's all right. But as the crisis deepened and as you come into August and September of 2008 they, I think, their level of confidence in that diminished and they felt that they would need to take control themselves and use the expertise also of the NTMA. Now that's all changed now.