Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

To answer Deputy Peter Burke's question on the meeting in July 2011, it was very tense. It was one of the first meetings. I suppose the troika was being very tough on everybody at the early stage in terms of the programme. I remember, in particular, that the ECB was particularly vociferous in asking why we did not just sell everything. If we had sold everything at that point, we would not have got back €32 billion, which was what we paid. Since the market was plummeting, we might have got back €18 billion or €20 billion, and another €12 billion or €14 billion would have been added to the national debt to cover that loss.

I resisted that and held my ground and I remember the representative from the ECB walking out of that particular meeting. In fairness to the other two parties, the European Commission and the IMF, they said that they understood my position and that I had a job to do and a target to meet. They agreed that I should get on with trying to reach that target, which was €7.5 billion