Mr. Brian Cowen:

I was adequately advised, I mean, in terms of what the risk scenarios would be. But I mean, I also make the point that, you know, you have to assess those risks and you have put them against your policy priorities and what you feel is necessary to address the needs of the people you represent, the country you're leading and the country you're seeking to serve. So ... and you stand or fall by those judgments. And the people made their judgment very clear in 2011. But, I mean, all I'm saying is, there was a very plausible policy position, there was a rationale behind what we were doing and in the absence of what ... of an international financial crisis, I believe that it would have proved in time to have been the right approach.

It would, I accept, require an adjustment and a reduced rate of spending growth thereafter, but there were certain basic building blocks that had to be put into that system, in my opinion, to have a range of Government, public services on basic issues like health and education that people were entitled to expect and there was also a need on the infrastructural side to make the public capital investments to deal with the economic bottlenecks that were actually compromising our ability to compete in the future.