Ms Fidelma Clarke:

I think that no one foresaw the extent of the downturn at that stage and had people realised the possibility of a ... I know it's called a one-in-a-100-year event, which we now actually use to inform what's called reverse stress testing in banks, so we come up with situations which will actually break the bank, and look at what would the things that a bank would need to take to prevent that, if possible, from happening. That sort of thinking wasn't in banking, I believe, in the early 2000s. And, again, I believe if people had felt that they were taking a very aggressive or, or dangerous stance that would threaten the viability of what it is they were setting out to preserve, I don't believe they'd have made that decision.