Ms Mary Harney:

And it was put forward very strongly, the views of the ECB which had to be taken into account. Clearly, we were part of a monetary union. And then a role had to be given to the Governor. And I think we were in discussions between ourselves and the Department of Finance for nearly two years before the memo was brought to Government and, to be honest, I was getting quite frustrated. And I didn't see the structure as the big issue. I felt ... and, even in hindsight, I'm not certain we would have got agreement to have a completely green field situation, I think we would have been taking a lot of people from the Central Bank. The difference with NTMA, really, was it was a completely new and expanded role when it was established, albeit with some people from the Department of Finance.