Mr. Derek Moran:

It is very easy to forget that this was an exceptional period. We were going into a programme and a general election. All conditionality that went with that programme had to be implemented as a priority for the release of funds. In addition, the State was locked out of the markets. As Ms Nolan has said, the rewriting of the relationship framework became a condition of the programme after the third review. It was originally to be delivered by the end of December 2011 and it was not delivered until the end of the first quarter. There was slippage on that. That was a relationship framework negotiated between us, the bank, the three members of the troika, and DG Comp. It was not simple. It was multi-party. To paraphrase what Ms Nolan has said, I think DG Comp wanted us to be even further away and more hands-off in our relationship with the banks rather than closer.