Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

And did you ever get a sense that the actual content of the published report had to be more benign than maybe the board collectively felt it should be because of the implications of putting some of those concerns in writing? And I'll just give you an extract from what Mr. Patterson said to this inquiry:

As the pressure cooker developed more and more pressure inside it, the financial stability report should have reflected greater concern, but paradoxically, it had to be even more constrained than it had been before because of the fear of bringing about a run on the banks. So, it got ... you get caught in this kind of dilemma, that no matter what way you jump, you're in trouble.

And I put it to him that was there an overriding requirement or a feeling of necessity to, in a sense, dilute or water down any major concerns that the board had, and he said "Yes". Did you ever get that sense, that the published report did not properly reflect the views of the Central Bank board and was that ever conveyed to you verbally in meetings with the Governor or anybody else, that they were afraid to put things in to that report that would, as Mr. Patterson put it, "spook the horses"?