Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

That really happened very quickly I think around 18 or 19 September 2008 because I suppose ... there's a bit of hysteria beginning to emerge in the media about, you know, should people withdraw their money from the banking system, should people withdraw their money from the post office. Clearly we had a huge interest in the money in the post office because that was national debt money and if ... and you know, it would affect us in terms of funding of the national debt. So there was a meeting convened ... the Department of Finance, I remember ... I think that was my first time actually meeting Governor Hurley, he had just returned from being out on sick leave, I think that might have been his first meeting after which ... after he returned. And myself and Dr. Somers and Mr. Corrigan went along to that meeting from the NTMA, the Minister chaired that meeting. There was a discussion about, you know, people are concerned about their deposits and what are we going to do and the view was taken at that meeting that maybe the deposit guarantee limit should be increased from €20,000 to €100,000, because I think in every country in Europe as far as I can recall at the time had a €100,000 limit, so there was nothing unusual in terms of ... in terms of doing that, in terms of trying to calm the, sort of, personal deposit market. And to be honest with you Senator I think that was, in fairness, I think that was a very sensible decision.