John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Thank you, Chairman. Good afternoon, or good morning, I think, still gentlemen. I only have ten minutes so I'd ask you to be as brief as you can. Firstly ... for you both, briefly, you both subscribed, I think, in your statements to the view that there would have been a soft landing, economically, for the country were it not for economic ... other external economic factors. Do you both still subscribe to the view that Ireland would have had a soft landing were it not for those external factors? Mr. Begg first, please.