Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Thanks, Chairman. Mr. Cowen, say in the previous, we'll say, period in '07 and '08, you were ... and even prior to that, you were getting warnings from the Department of Finance officials about the exposure to the property market and could I make reference to document DOF 01962002? It's Vol. 2, Department of Finance. And it specifically relates, Mr. Cowen, to a memo from the domestic standing group to yourself and Mr. Beausang back in 16 November 2007, where they speak about that there was a problem with liquidity coming down the tracks for the Irish banks. So, the question I suppose I want to ask you is that, when you went in as Taoiseach, you would have been ... you would have seen this memo - it's coming up on screen - that was ... and this particular memo was the bones of over ten months before the bank guarantee was put in place. What type of instructions did you give to deal with this unfolding crisis? And how did we get to a point that, over ten months later, on the night of the guarantee on 30 September, that, in a room alongside your office as Taoiseach, that people were standing around looking over a cliff to make a decision in a eight-hour period, it would have monumental implications for Ireland in terms of eventually leading to a gross of €64 billion on the heads of-----