Ms Cathy Herbert:

Well, I think there was a concern to maximise the negotiating position but also, I think, that it happened so quickly ... we'd had that meeting with Olli Rehn on the Monday and by the Sunday ... the Saturday and Sunday, there was this intensive briefing going on. And I think Brian Lenihan knew that maybe we would need ... we would end up at some stage in a bailout. But he was anxious, if he could, and he fought for a long time to do it, to see if we could get this idea of a precautionary bailout, that we would implement the decisions ourselves under intense supervision. We had our plan almost complete at that stage and that's what he wanted to do. And I don't suppose there's any Minister for Finance that gladly embraces the idea of a bailout, you know, and I think he had fought a hard battle to try and keep the country out of a bailout and then, ultimately, that's what happened. And naturally there was a reluctance on the part of the Government generally, I would imagine.