John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Thank you, Chair. Briefly at the start, Mr. Cowen, and you're welcome back, I want to refer to scenario 3 again on that document which we just had up, which is Vol. 4 of your core documents, page 16 ... the bottom of page 16. You have - today and the last day - outlined that you placed, I suppose, trust in the position of the Financial Regulator. And this is a document that was prepared for you ... prepared for the Department, when you were Minister for Finance, which we extensively referred to the last day. The bottom of that paragraph reads as follows:

In a period of [severe market or] severe financial markets turmoil [which, I think, we were certainly in September 2008], it may be very difficult to determine the true worth of the bank's assets including its net contingent assets ... it is much more difficult for a central bank or a financial regulator to know whether the bank is just illiquid or has become insolvent, especially in the light of the incentives a bank may have to disguise its true state of health from a central bank or a financial regulator.

Now, you've presented - the last day and today - that you placed faith in the regulator and in the Central Bank and yet your own Department of Finance document is explicitly warning at ... in January 2008 not to place faith - or maybe not to place faith but to question that faith - in the regulator and in the case of severe financial markets turmoil. Can you explain why ... why you didn't follow that-----