Mr. Marco Buti:

As always, when we address economic policy-making of a country, one has critical views as well as more positive views. At the time Ireland grew very strongly. There was overall, according to the great moderation paradigm, relatively reasonably low inflation, there was very strong growth and the budget was either balanced or in surplus. We think considering the constraints and the framework that we had at the time, Ireland performed very well. We had to go beyond that in order to highlight the risks. There was always, as it is now, a mixture of acknowledgement or surprise, as indicated, as well as critical remarks. I would not say it was a blurred message. It was a more nuanced one where the elements of criticism and risks, in particular, related to the impact of the housing and property boom and the kind of implication this had for fiscal policy in particular. We saw the increase in revenue as being potentially transient. Indeed, when the crisis hit this revenue disappeared and then the emperor was naked.