Mr. Charlie McCreevy:

On the basis that there is nothing being done today that couldn't be done better and I suppose there are things being done today in the Department of Finance which are being done better than they were during my time but ... so, I am sure the Department of Finance has taken on board some of the commentary in Wright and other inquiries that they made themselves and the ongoing work that they do to improve themselves. I can only speak for my time at the Department of Finance. I found the officials there very helpful, working extremely long hours, prepared to - at the drop of a pin - to go and do things which were way above and beyond the call of duty. I found them helpful in every respect. They argued their viewpoint very forcibly, they ... and then when, if you wanted to go in another direction, they went off and did what you told them to do. That's the job of what good public servants do and I can only say that I think they vigorously fought their corner. I found nothing during my time to say that there was anything but the highest level of intellectual capacity applied to all the problems and the best officials I think in the public service were there.