Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wouldn't have a lot of expertise in the field now but, first of all, I needed to ensure that we didn't have to look for extra money to do it. So it had to fall ... less than €35 billion, I think, was the issue. And the stress test figure came up with something like €16 billion or €17 billion or €18 billion, somewhere in that neighbourhood. And the authorities in Europe said "The markets will not believe that figure, so you have to go beyond that." So it was pushed up to just over €20 billion. And then they said "We need you to put in contingent capital as well, which you'll get back if it's not needed." And that's where the CoCos came in, and that was another €3 billion, and it went up to €24 billion. But the negotiations weren't done by me, they were done by the Central Bank with the authorities in Frankfurt and the other interests, like the Commission. And in the end of the day, it looked reasonably prudent, and we sold shares then in Bank of Ireland on the private ... to the private sector and we discounted junior bondholders to the tune of €5.1 billion, I think it was, and it came down to something over €16 billion. The €24 billion was reduced to about €16.5 billion for that reason and we hope to get back everything, but not the Anglo Irish stuff.