Mr. Charlie McCreevy:

Well, I don't remember any commentator, Senator, ever, in that particular time ... ever thinking that an Irish bank could fall under. The only time, in my political career, that I can think of when that danger was about was around 1985 or so when the Insurance Corporation of Ireland, a subsidiary of Allied Irish Banks, had run into some difficulty and the ICI, or AIB, came to the then Government and asked them to take some measures because they, if I remember correctly, thought that the financial stability of AIB could be put at risk. I don't remember, since that time, and certainly not during my period, that anybody ever had the remotest possibility of thinking that any Irish financial institution, like mainly the major banks, was going to collapse. In fact the ... in fact, it was totally the opposite. Both of the major banks were having ... announcing enormous profits every year and enormous dividends and accordingly going from strength to strength.