Ms Margaret Hayes:

I think it would be helpful to refer to a parliamentary question answered on Thursday, 16 December 2010 by the then Minister for Finance, the late Brian Lenihan, when he responded to a question on the duties and role of public interest directors. I quote:

Public Interest Directors bring in addition to other experiences, a civic mindedness and a sense of what is in the public interest and this experience will inform their sense of what is in the covered institutions' interests. To a great extent the public interest and the covered institutions' interests are likely to coincide. A solvent, liquid, low-risk, prudentially run, profitable company which is a going-concern and which has the confidence of its stakeholders is as much in the public interest as it is in the interests of the institutions.

I can honestly say that Mr. MacSharry and I have pursued those objectives since our appointment to the board.