Mr. Marco Buti:

What Deputy McGrath has said is correct. We used the tools we had at the time to ring the bell. It was specifically the responsibility of the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs to check that what was happening in Ireland with regard policy-making was consistent with the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact. The answer is what Deputy McGrath has said, which is that it was. We had to judge whether the fiscal policy of each country was in line with the Stability and Growth Pact. Ireland was in line with it. What we now know is this was not enough to ensure the healthy development of the economy.