Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)
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Mr. Nyberg mentioned that the crisis in Ireland was not unique because Iceland, Finland, the United States to an extent, and other countries indeed, but he did say there were specific differences, obviously in the tools they had to deal with them, the counter-cyclical measures in terms of the control of their own currency and, specifically, interest rates. Would Mr. Nyberg agree that the fact that at a particular period we had 2% money available from the ECB and, on one occasion, 10.5% growth rates here was a recipe for disaster, and that to the extent that the ECB, in assessing how it does its business and how it sets interest rates, focuses more on inflationary concerns than the economic performance of member states means that interest rates would never be and will never be where Ireland, as an economy and as a nation, need them to be? Indeed, if one looks at today where we have 0% interest rates available through the ECB and projected growth rates here - I am conscious that Mr. Nyberg said economists are wrong - of some 6%, for small economies, such as Ireland, which are less than 1% of the eurozone, does Mr. Nyberg feel that the structure of the euro is such that we will ever have sufficient counter-cyclical tools in our toolbox to prevent a catastrophe like this again? At that time, was that the case?

Finally, on that point, on the basis that it was not unique in other ways, other than the currency issue that we had in other countries, why, in the main, were the IMF, the EU Commission, the ECB and other agencies not so quick, not much quicker, to say this is a serious problem? Was it because a lot of the beneficial interests from a banking perspective internationally were from large member states such as Germany and others? Just like the household who, as Mr. Nyberg put it, were happy to enjoy a good time for the length the bubble lasted, were other countries, who were perhaps more influential in the context of euro monetary policy, quite happy to have Ireland borrow to the extent that it was borrowing, to be creating more profit for these institutions, so that they were feeding the beast?