Mr. Jonathan Sugarman:

I wish to add two things. The first relates to an article by Fintan O'Toole in The Irish Timesaround Easter 2010. In the article I am referred to as "James". The headline is: "The finance manager who tried to play by the rules". The article states:

Catastrophic as this week's banking bailout figures are, they could actually have been much worse. It is a matter of sheer luck that in 2007, before the credit crunch, a Dublin-based bank called Depfa was bought by the German financial group Hypo Real Estate. Very few people in Ireland had ever heard of Depfa. Although it was as German as sauerkraut, it was actually the largest bank in Ireland - bigger than AIB. It was, in legal and regulatory terms, an entirely Irish company. When the financial crisis unfolded, Depfa brought down Hypo. The cost to the German government so far is €102 billion.

I think that will give the committee some idea of why the people were then coerced into a bailout of roughly €70 billion.