Mr. Brian Cowen:

Well, recruitment into the public service at that level had been very difficult from the time that the economic prospects improved because there were other job opportunities for people who would normally use that channel of Civil Service employment. There are now far more remunerative jobs available for people of that calibre in the private sector and in an area of industry ... the financial services industry that we hadn't explored before the late '80s and there were, indeed, many people whom I know are successful in the financial services industry who have been well trained within the Department of Finance and went successfully to the private sector. But it meant that there was a draining of resources and a difficulty in trying to replenish those resources in a way that would have maintained the intellectual rigour of the Department, for which it had been noted in the past, albeit conservative.