Mr. Brian Cowen:

You know, obviously, the market along with other bank shares in other countries were obviously attacking the bank shares. What the authorities were trying to do is regardless of what sentiment there was in the market, in terms of the share price and who was buying and who was selling shares, they were trying to make sure that there were sufficient funds in the system. They were agnostic, if you like, on that point, they wanted to make sure we have funds in the system going.

And if it meant talking to various banks about arrangements, informal or otherwise as to how to do that, their overall preoccupation was, "Keep this system functioning. We are working in a tighter liquidity situation than was the case 12 months ago, eight months ago, four months ago." And they are all the time trying to make sure that that liquidity situation doesn't become critical. That's, that's as I see the work that they are doing.