Mr. Cormac Butler:

As I pointed out, there are letters from the ECB from 2001 and 2003 which show that it was aware of the weaknesses of the accounting standard. Brian Lenihan said that the guarantee in 2008 would be the cheapest bailout in the world, which indicates that he had not intended to bail out past losses. A report from PwC confirmed that all banks had sufficient capital to withstand future losses, which indicated that all the banks were solvent. It was admitted in the banking inquiry that when the accountancy firms were measuring solvency they did not take into account losses they were not allowed to recognise under IAS 39. This effectively means that solvency was measured incorrectly. With regard to the repayment of the promissory notes, when the cheque for the €3 billion repayment is authorised an existing liability is not extinguished; money is given away that is not due or payable.