Mr. Brian Cowen:

Thank you Chairman, thank you to the committee. First of all I wish to thank the committee for the courtesy they have extended to me and indeed the many necessary and rigorous questions they have asked and the spirit in which they were asked. I have willingly come to this inquiry to be as helpful as I can. The statements that I have forwarded to you and that I have read out at these two public hearings constitute my considered opinion on the issues that you have raised with me. I hope our interaction has provided further assistance to you in the work that you are doing. I think the banking reports that my Government commissioned and the Nyberg Commission of Investigation report, along with the report that will ultimately emanate from this Oireachtas banking inquiry, will hopefully add to people's understanding of the nature and scale of crisis that confronted us and the public policy responses of successive Governments. I believe the management of the crisis over the last seven years has enabled us to look to the future with greater optimism. These improved prospects for our country would only have happened by the efforts and sacrifices of the Irish people themselves. I believe we confronted our responsibilities to the best of our ability and our democratic system is hopefully the stronger for it, despite the strains on it that were undoubtedly imposed from time to time as the crisis intensified and then abated.

As the person who led the Government at the time, I want to place on record my appreciation for the work and efforts of all those who served the Government in all our Departments of State and agencies at that time. I believe that they displayed a strong and unswerving commitment to the State and its fortunes at all times and I am personally deeply indebted to them. In the context of the workload on policy issues that arose during this financial crisis, a particular burden was borne by the Minister for Finance, the late Brian Lenihan, and the Attorney General, Paul Gallagher, and those who worked to them. My fellow colleagues in government and in Parliament will forgive me if I pay particular tribute to the quality of their work, given the budgetary and legislative workload that they have to do and undertake during that time. Finally I want to reiterate for the record once again that what has motivated me throughout all of my political career has been to serve my country and our people to the very best of my ability. While I accept as a committed democrat the verdict of the people on the performance of the Government I led, it is my fervent hope that they accept that I never compromised my political integrity or breached the public trust in the performance of my duties as a Minister or as Taoiseach. To hold the office of Taoiseach I regard as the greatest honour. I did my duty as I saw it, it was my privilege to serve. Go raibh maith agaibh.