Mr. Paul Gallagher:

Well, Deputy, if I may answer that. Firstly, I was asked to come to a meeting that evening late in the afternoon ... that the banks were coming in to meet with the Government. Obviously, it was apparent something serious was going to occur but not what precisely occurred. Secondly, the Department of Finance had given very careful consideration to the guarantee. That had been carefully considered. What Mr. Gleeson is referring to are the specific instruments, the technical description of what needed to be covered. In relation to that, both the Department of Finance and the Governor had the specific expertise with regard to the type of instrument that need to be covered. The banks had their view on what needed to be covered. There was an interaction with the banks and their views were considered and taken into account. But I want to make one thing very clear. The interaction with the banks were that they were invited into the meeting, they were asked certain questions, they were given an opportunity to say certain things. Very appropriately, in my view, they were then asked to leave. And anything said by the banks was carefully and independently considered by what I might call "the Government team".

And any decision that was made with regard to what should be covered was made, as I set out in my statement, after very careful consideration as to what the Government thought was necessary to address what was described by Governor Hurley as the real possibility of a meltdown of the financial system.