Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I think, Deputy McGrath, we knew enough about banking to know the difference between liquidity and solvency. And I can't speak for the present Finance Minister but I know what I was trying to find out was, well is it true that it's only a liquidity crisis? And, quite honestly, I thought it was no more than just a liquidity crisis until immediately around that period when I began to have concerns. Secondly, I think there was a distinction in the areas where this issue was being discussed at the time as between the two old banks and Anglo Irish.

You know, I mean, it was an open secret that people were puzzling with, "How is it that to banks that were, in one guise or another, older than the State itself could have got into such a reckless lending splurge?". But, a distinction was drawn between that and Anglo Irish and, I must say, I had a doubt in my mind about Anglo Irish - I think that was widely shared. I think the Minister for Finance - I had been opposite him for a year and a month, I think it was, in justice - and I think you could see the learning curve that he was on. And I think ... let me put it this way, he was at least, at that stage, asking himself the same question. Now, I would not have expected him to get up in the House and make a ... a statement because that would have obvious repercussions. But I think he had reached the stage ... not, I think, in respect of what are now called the pillar banks but in terms of Anglo Irish, I think that he had reached the stage ... and I say that from ... in addition ... I say that from some discussions that I had with him before, during and after ... I think he himself was asking himself questions about whether Anglo was in fact rotten.