Mr. Matt Moran:

Thank you, Chairman, I would agree with that. I think the context though, just to be helpful to the committee, is banks were under siege and Irish banks were under very significant siege at the time. International markets and players in markets can make a lot of money if share prices go up and others can make a lot of money if share prices go down. So there are always parties looking to seek value through the rise in a share price and others looking to seek value through the fall of a share price. At the time, clearly, markets were very sensitive. I don’t agree, by the way, with the version of events as written in that manner but of course all the banks at the time engaged with all the parties who were writing about the bank.

With a bank, it is very important, if you ... if issues happen in a bank - and remember at the time we had the regulator coming in because of rumours that were being spread by parties, potentially to play their own business or play their own book - it is very important that during that fragile time that some balance is given to that situation.