Mr. John Gormley:

Well, you could look at it another way, and you could say that, in relation to the guarantee issue, I, notwithstanding the fact that I didn't know that legislation was being drafted ... this issue has been raised by your colleague, Deputy Doherty ... notwithstanding that, I probably had more knowledge of the issue than other members of the Cabinet. That's in relation to the guarantee. Just to move on now to the question of what happened subsequently: we were in a crisis. Things were moving very, very quickly. I was not just the leader of the Green Party, I was also in charge of a huge Department, and I'm sure if you talk to your colleague, Minister Kelly, he will tell you that it's a big Department. It was even bigger then. I was looking after more issues and you could ... you know, from libraries, fire brigades, the whole thing. I was also the leader of a party, of a small party, that was in the worst crisis you can imagine. I had to deal with the party members and that was my brief because, you have to remember, that if the Green Party decided to pull out of Government, that was the end of the Government. And so it was my duty ... and we divided up the roles, Eamon Ryan's Department was a much smaller Department and he had more ... frankly, he had more time on his hands. And so, therefore, it made sense under the circumstances to operate in this way.