Mr. Paul Gallagher:

I do not see how a responsible government would do that. I mean, if ELA was withdrawn, all of the banks were gone so you were back to the same situation. So it's a very big bet and my experience of dealing with the institutions - and I dealt with them in the Lisbon treaty and the guarantees - they take a very legalistic view and the other countries ... and this is why I said you have countries sympathetic to Ireland saying Ireland is a great country and you've done very well, but every one of them will, ultimately, look after their own interests and they are not people that can be easily beaten down in negotiations. Every country is looking after its own interest. There is the Community spirit and the Union spirit and that will be adhered to. And I think that's all very positive but, at the end of the day, in critical matters, they will look after their own interests and that is certainly the position with the ESB because I had a subsequent involvement for another client in relation to dealing with ECB - and I do not want to say anything for client confidentiality - and my experience of the ECB is they took the legal situation enormously seriously, as they were bound to do, no matter what the consequences.