Professor Alan Ahearne:

I didn't have a number. Ultimately, it would depend on ... the amount of recapitalisation that was going to have to be done by the State depended on lots of different things. It depended on, one, on how much private capital the banks could attract. There was always, right from day one, I think, some confidence that the Bank of Ireland would be able to attract private capital, and therefore, save the State having to inject the money. There was more scepticism about whether AIB would by then, so it was seen as a more troubled bank than Bank of Ireland.