Professor Patrick Honohan:

Well, I don't find it all that significant. Basically, my guess is the top two people were out of the country - of the NTMA - Somers and ... this is what we are told, Somers and Oliver Whelan. They were out of the country so ... so you had Brendan who was number three, but you know, when you get into this small ... nobody's going to say, "Where's Somers?" - "Oh he's away," - "Oh okay." They're not going to say "Is there a representative from the NTMA present?" So the officials would have known "Well Brendan, he knows about this stuff," and I think Kevin was sending some e-mail to Brendan to see what happens but you don't ... it's not as if ... I can't imagine Kevin saying "Taoiseach, I think we really ... we can't go on with this meeting without the NTMA present because they're ...". No, so, I don't actually find it all that significant that Brendan would have been kicking his heels outside the room. I'm sure there were other people who could have expressed views outside the room, I don't find it sinister at all.