Professor Eamonn Walsh:

This relates to the estimates of what sort of capital requirements there might be. I stand open to correction but I am of the view that there was a change between phase 1 to phase 2. Paragraphs 4.8.4 and 4.8.8 of the Nyberg report deal quite well with this matter. Paragraph 4.8.4 states:

The outcome of the initial PwC assessment was generally viewed by the Authorities as reasonably benign. In early November a joint letter was sent by the CB and the FR to the Minister for Finance which included assurances as to the solvency of the covered institutions on the date of the Guarantee as well as their future solvency through to 2011.

While paragraph 4.8.8 states:

Notwithstanding the benign view generally taken by the Authorities of the PwC initial assessment it has been argued – correctly, in the Commission’s view – that the nature, scale and concentration of the exposures now listed should have aroused more heightened and widespread concerns that institutions were likely to face solvency difficulties.