Mr. John Corrigan:

I was certainly taken aback because I wasn't aware that the system, if you like, was that close to making such a big decision, but I wasn't there on the night and it's easy, or not easy as the case may be, to sit and second-guess. I mean, looking at it, you could take the view that it probably was the least bad solution. I don't know. I ... they could have nationalised Anglo Irish that night, or announced that it would be nationalised but I was a bit taken aback mainly because, as I said, I had been involved in some of the discussions the previous week, but not all of them, and I certainly hadn't got the impression that we were that close to making such a big call.