Ms Cathy Herbert:

I think there had been some indication that things, you know ... the figures ... various indicators had been taking a bit of a dip. But he was surprised and he had been told, obviously. He had been briefed about it when he entered the Department and the Taoiseach had ... would have told him and the Minister for ... as Minister for Finance he would have also briefed the Ministers about, you know, what was happening in terms of the economic indicators. But the speed which it gathered pace, I mean, after that mini-budget, it was very clear by the time we came back in September that that wasn't enough. Then therefore, there was the budget was brought forward to October. The Department at that stage were indicating that the ... the returns could be down €5 billion. In fact, it was €8 billion. So it really gathered speed and-----