Ms Mary Harney:

Well, I think, Senator, it's reasonable that the Department of Finance had contingency plans, given what was happening in the global economy. It's also reasonable that they would not have made the wider Government aware of that for a whole host of reasons. And that would not be unusual. Line Ministers would often operate in an environment where you're putting contingency proposals in place in the event of something awful happening and you wouldn't necessarily brief the rest of the Cabinet. You would normally brief the Taoiseach, and if it had an implication for another line Minister, so that is not unusual. I think, to be fair to the Minister for Finance, he was extremely open in his dealings with me. I think he kept me as informed, as well informed, and it was right that if his Department, in consultation with the Attorney General, were putting measures in place in the event of something awful happening ... it's better that that was happening than the alternative of not doing that.