Mr. Brian Cowen:

I understand. When it came to the ... when it came to the negotiation, you were dealing with the institutions, and the institutions were being ... both the Council, the Commission and the ECB were being represented in the troika situation and they had a mandate under those funds to complete a programme and we felt that once you had ... once we had applied for the programme it was important to get those negotiations dealt with quickly and efficiently and not create a lot of uncertainty about it. As I say, the work that had been ongoing beforehand, before we formally applied meant that we were able to do that, because a lot of interaction had taken place, if you like, on what ... because we had in our plan, you know, there were structural reforms as well as fiscal issues and expenditure issues. So we were in a position to produce all of that. And that was quickly assessed by the troika people when we handed it over after the Cabinet had approved it and they acknowledged its rigour and they acknowledged that it would fit the bill, it would meet the requirements, that it was substantive, it was good work. So the question then of looking for support beyond that, we had ... we had the agreement of the troika to what it is we were putting and they were going to come to us then on the banking side with their proposals on restructuring and all the rest of it and how that would be funded and those discussions were ongoing and then you had the whole ... the question of the IMF stuff then after that.