Dr. Michael Somers:

I don't think, Deputy, that I was actually at that meeting. That was the day, I think, before the 29th when the guarantee was given. I had been away the early part of that week. I'm the Irish director on the board of the European Investment Bank and I was away on Monday and Tuesday. So I was back Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and I have nothing in my diary to indicate that I was at any of those meetings or was involved with it at all.

Now we did hire Merrill Lynch on the direction of the Minister for Finance. We didn't need them, we were not looking for their advice, and they did tend to interact directly with the Department of Finance. We did get some stuff from them but not, as far as I know ... we were ... while we pay them, we were not their main contact point.