Mr. John Corrigan:

Well again the, the discussion revolved around whether the bank, among other things, should be either nationalised or whether it should have ... the State should buy preference shares in the bank in the same manner as was being proposed in AIB and Bank of Ireland. We took the view that buying preference shares, depending upon the conditions of the preference shares, which would have to obviously be discussed, had potential, as I said in the written statement which I've submitted to the inquiry, for letting subordinated debt holders off the hook and that in itself was a compelling argument for nationalisation. And we repeated that view in a subsequent e-mail that we sent to the Department of Finance early the following week. But notwithstanding that view, as I said, the decision was taken. Now, we wouldn't have been party to the detailed discussions in the Department, presumably with the Minister and whoever else, in arriving at the decision to go the recapitalisation route, rather than the nationalisation route but our clear ... our views were very clear and we also, as I said, adduced that argument that it could have the potential to let the subordinated debt holders off the hook.