Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Can I take you to the issue of burden-sharing, which featured during the negotiations of the bailout programme as well? We heard evidence this morning from Ajai Chopra, the mission chief from the IMF, and in his view, if Ireland had been allowed to impose losses on senior bondholders at the time of the programme negotiation, savings of up to €8 billion could possibly have been achieved. We know that the ECB was opposed to it at the time, the IMF was supportive of it and it would appear that the Commission sided with the ECB and blocked burden-sharing. Is that the case?