Mr. Brian Cowen:

I understood that the interest ... I was happy that the interest rate issue wasn't being closed off to us. We'd have liked to have got it lower at the initial stages but it was clear, as the first entrants into the programme, I understood what the thinking on the other side was. There were structural reforms that were difficult, they were all very difficult ... you know there was enough in it to be concerning without worrying about what wasn't in it. There was a lot in it and it was going to be difficult politically to deliver, one way or the other.