Ms Mary Harney:

Well, well ... the night, the information on which the guarantee was based clearly did not indicate there was a solvency issue. And I think other witnesses that have give evidence here before the committee who were present on the night have confirmed that. That emerged subsequently. And as the, you know, the loans got transferred to NAMA and the haircut was substantially bigger than anyone had anticipated, that is the reality of what happened, Senator, and I think many of the comments I made earlier in relation to mistakes made - perhaps we could have done things differently to have better information, to have minimised the burden on the taxpayers, to have mitigated some of the risks. But we did not have that information. And I have to say that in my experience in government, between 1997 and January 2011, my colleagues always acted in the national interest. When serious problems were brought to attention, they were dealt with, notwithstanding the consequence, political or otherwise. That has been my experience.