Mr. David McWilliams:

I have the quote here from the Minister, and again I can absolutely understand why a Minister for Finance in a country does not want to precipitate, or has no interest in precipitating, any further panic than is already there. The Minister replied to me and said, "That is dangerous talk". I think when we get to a situation where telling the truth is regarded as dangerous, the Deputy knows that we are in the last resort saloon. We came out of the RTE interview and there was chitchat and pleasantries and Brian Lenihan said to me, "You seem to know what's going on". He said to me, "You got all this right in the last couple of years" and he laughed. He said, "Why don't you come in and advise me because everybody else is in advising me?" That was the actual quote. He said, "Here is my number" and he scribbled it down. I scribbled it down, I think, on the back of one of the books I had taken in with me. That was the first time I met Brian Lenihan, so I took his number.