Mr. Paul Gallagher:

No, there wasn't any such commentary. And I think the view was taken in Ireland was that you needed, if you were going to try and save the system, you needed to have people certain that the guarantee means that it's a guarantee. These are ... these other countries are ... have enormous resources, the UK and Germany, and a political guarantee in those circumstances ... in fact, they also brought in various forms of guarantee that were ... but a political guarantee has a particular status. Ireland was concerned to ensure that what it did had credibility and the advice given was that you needed a guarantee that had legal effect, and that's what was done.