Mr. Brian Cowen:

Well, the appointments were made on the basis of their suitability and competence. I believe all three meet those requirements. I would say to the committee I would know two of them personally, Alan Gray and Brian Hillery. Brian Hillery is a former Member of this House, he is a former professor of industrial relations in UCD. He's a person whom I hold in high regard, has worked on various bodies here on behalf of the State on various issues. So I felt he would be ... his skill-set would be helpful. Alan Gray, as I said, he's a competition economist, he's a guy who's ... a person who I think is internationally recognised, a respected economic consultancy firm. Again, I think he was replacing a German person I think who had served for a good while on the bank and had economic experience. The third man you mentioned, I don't know him personally ... again highly respected in economic circles. Would have been the person who devised the purchasing managers' index which was a means of finding out how things are going in the business world in terms of purchases and what the confidence levels in the economy is ... that may well have been recommended to me from within the Department, I can't recall but I don't know the person personally, but certainly his CV was impressive.