Mr. Marco Buti:

I understood that this is about the pre-crisis period. I do not want to sound reticent. I have my opinion on this having lived through that period. I understand there is a nexus phase of the inquiry where the whole response to the crisis will be addressed.

Ireland had extraordinary growth before the crisis. There was a healthy period and a less healthy period. We focused at the time, with the economic paradigm we had in mind and with the tools we had, on something which turned out to be incomplete at best. Ireland had an extremely rough time when the crisis erupted and Europe had to step in to help and rescue the Irish economy.

I agree that there was an existential risk posed by the sovereign debt crisis from countries like Ireland, but also Greece, Portugal and, to a certain extent, Spain. We were seeing at the time the risk of collapse in the euro. The committee members may all remember the Financial Timeswebsite was counting the minutes of the life evolution of the euro crisis as if we were just about to collapse at any moment. Ireland was part of this. Overall, assistance was deployed. We were fixing the plane while flying because we did not have the tools and the firewalls to address the crisis at the time. Crisis prevention has been strengthened since then. The tools to deal with the crisis have been put in place. That is where we stand.

Ireland has exited the assistance programme. We have forecast a return to strong growth in 2014 and 2015. Ireland is back on its feet at this moment in time.