Mr. Brian Cowen:

Well I don't know, I don't know. It's only speculation on my part. There's clearly ... there are ... there were people who liked to ... who felt ... who didn't like the pace at which we were addressing this issue, which was quite fast as far as I was concerned. You know, we had a Government to run, we had serious difficulties on our hands anyway. And the Minister was a person who was ... the Minister for Finance was highly regarded by his colleagues and rightly so. And he was giving an indication as to what we were ... you know ... generally, where the situation was heading for subject to him being satisfied on a number of points. And that should have been accepted. I don't see why we have to receive letters about it, I don't see why people have to source anonymously about Ireland being here ... in or out of a programme. We were doing our job engaging with the institutions and we should have been given a little bit of space and time and respect to come to a decision that we eventually came to.