Mr. Brian Cowen:

Well, I'm just talking there in the context of resources. I'm talking in the context, you know, you have an organisation like the Central Bank and regulator, who are independent. I think it's important that that independence be respected. It doesn't mean you don't have oversight in broad terms; I'm not suggesting that, but you can't ... I don't think it's good practice to have what may be termed, or could be interpreted, as political interference in the independent regulatory function, which would have been the case were there representations coming from the Department in a regular manner, but one would have a general, overall view of policy, you know, what were the policy drivers in the regulator's office, and the statutory functions that were laid out would be respected. It doesn't ... I'm just making that point, it doesn't suggest ... I just don't accept that there was a resource issue in figuring out what could need to be done in any given set of circumstances. That was a decision that you had to make yourself and assess.