Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 8 July 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Nexus Phase

Mr. Brian Cowen:

Well, I was aware, you know, like ... we were all aware that it could be ... there could be a loan, there were obviously going to be some loan losses in these banks, given where were at. But, we were ... were not aware of the fact that we were going to end up with an insolvency situation the way we did and we were certainly not aware that we were going to have the loan losses of the magnitude that we had. That was certainly not on the table. And then, therefore, to just ... I'm just coming back, just for the purpose of confirmation, the issue on the nationalisation question was, what is likely ... what way is that likely to be taken by the markets if you do it now? And that's the story, and if ... will that bring more money into the system or would it mean less money coming back into the system? And, first priority is get money into the system.