Mr. Ajai Chopra:

When the IMF puts together a financing package, our experience ... the experience has been that it is best to have a sufficiently large package so that it gives confidence that financing will not be a problem during the course of the programme, that there's some certainty as to the amount of financing that can be provided, and that ... it's better not to have to come back later and augment it. You know, there have been programmes where an augmentation has been necessary, so, you know, we wanted to avoid that. We then, sort of, thought in terms of, you know, how much should we set aside for the banks, how much needs to be set aside for the requirements of the Exchequer, which come from the path for the fiscal deficit, comes from, you know, the debts ... the gross debt service payments that need to be made and when you expect the country to re-enter the markets. That part is reasonably, you know ... well, there's always uncertainty as to when you re-enter the markets, but the other parts I think ... you know, the numbers work, you can get to something. So, that's how we, sort of, got to the total number.

Now, Ireland did have, it was in the good position to have a sovereign wealth fund, I mean the NPRF is actually a misnomer in my view but it is a sovereign wealth fund and, you know, when you have that, I think it behoves the country to actually use that and, as I said in my witness statement, that was a sign of strength so it was that perspective that we took when we... when we designed the financing package. The IMF, in terms of its financing, was... it was pretty much at a limit as to what it could give.