Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

And then, Mr. Cowen, finally, because of time, Mr. Cardiff, in evidence, did say that you surprised him quite early on, I'll just quote that:

I had expected of course that we would discuss guarantees for banks among the options for consideration ... – indeed, by then I thought that some guarantees were inevitable. But the Taoiseach raised the issue of a broad pre-emptive guarantee [very] early [on]. It seemed to me [that he already had a preference for this approach going into the meeting or that it was at least] the baseline approach against which every other option would be considered.

Can I ask you, number one, if his suggestion is true, that you came there really intent on the guarantee? And secondly, and lastly because of time, did ... how seriously, if at all, did you and the Government look into the position, particularly of Anglo and INBS, and the figures that Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs had both thrown up to the Government before this night, when it was clearly shown in those figures that INBS was insolvent on the night of the guarantee?