Mr. Brian Cowen:

My own reaction was I thought it was pessimistic, very pessimistic. I thought it was very much a worst-case scenario. I felt there was a consensus of opinion against him. He was an out ... he was an outlier in that respect. It doesn't mean he wasn't right or more correct than the consensus but, normally, you find you're veering towards the, you know, "What's everyone else saying compared to this?" And "Is he correct?" If there's more going with him, you say "Well, that's more likely to be correct than otherwise." That's a normal deduction you'd make based on how you assess opinion but I, obviously, said to myself "It's hopefully ... if it's over eight years, it's a definition of a soft landing, not as soft as what we were hoping for but at least it's out over a period, and we'll have time to adapt." The problem is there was no time to adapt when the crash came.