Mr. Diarmuid O'Flynn:

I will not pretend that we are experts because we are not. We did not have much of a clue when this started. We went to the ECB and to all the various officials, including the most senior that work for the Commission. We met the official responsible for Ireland's finances at the time of its intervention, and who had responsibility for the macrofinances of three countries. He was one of the most senior economists and had a string of letters after his name. We sat and debated with him for an hour but he could not show us how what they were doing was right. We met senior officials from the troika for nearly two hours, having met Patrick Honohan of the Central Bank. I have never been so depressed coming out of a meeting because that guy just patronised us. He almost patted my colleague on the head and suggested it was way over our heads. We laid out our case to the ECB and they said it could be tackled. They said it would be very difficult but that is was not impossible. I come from a small parish and we have teams trying to get to the under-14 final, the junior final and the senior final. They are all difficult but just because they are difficult does not mean it should not be attempted. One picks one's best team and trains to the nth degree to go into battle. This battle can be won. The ECB said things could not be done - such as quantitative easing - when we were at the beginning of the crisis before going on to print €80 billion per month.