Mr. Charlie McCreevy:

Well, one of the better committees that I was involved in in my political life, and that includes Ireland and Europe, there was a committee chaired by the late Jim Mitchell, set up in 1995 I would say, and I was spokesperson ... I was the finance spokesperson for Fianna Fáil to look at the whole area of our possible entry into the euro. And the late Deputy Mitchell brought all types of views before the committee; people who were very for joining it, people who were against. So we had a very robust discussion and no one ... we learnt a lot, all of us there, and it worked. We got very little headlines but actually it was very keen, so therefore all of the issues were thought about then. When I, as Deputy Murphy has alluded to, I would have had concerns about us joining the euro, as most ... as a lot of people did. Interesting enough, to show how ridiculous the economics profession is, our biggest, one of our biggest concerns at the time was that when we join the euro and our nearest neighbour wasn't joining. That was the big issue at the time, that we were going to join the euro and knowing that the United Kingdom wasn't going to join. Now it shows the development of the Irish economy since we joined the EU in 1973 that we were able to take that decision and consider it, knowing that our nearest neighbour, our biggest market, were not going to join. And one of the biggest issues that we had at the committee was the fear that we would join the euro, that the rate for the Irish ... the euro versus sterling would go totally in the wrong direction for us. And if you read some of the expert views we got done by many eminent economists who predicted that the Irish rate might go to €1.10 - €1.09, €1.10. Deputy Murphy will be aware that the total opposite occurred and we went in the other direction to as low as €0.66, €0.67. So it goes to show what all the experts ... but when we ... when we ... when I became Minister for Finance then in 1997, I actually was the Minister responsible then for making the formal decision and it took place ... or the euro notes and coins didn't start till '02 but we joined from 1999. And the major decision I had to make was at what rate we were going to join vis-à-visthe Deutsche mark and if I remember correctly, Ireland, when we devalued in '92, '93, we went to a rate, off the top of my head, the Deutsche mark from DM2.67 to DM2.41. It was then that the Irish pound kept appreciating against the Deutsche mark in '96, '97 and '98 up along, and the rate was when we were going to join and I said ... we kept our counsel very ... our cards very close to our chest and I finally made the call and we joined I think at the rate was DM2.48667. Why I can remember these figures I just don't know but I think they are fairly accurate.