Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 15 July 2015
Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis
Nexus Phase
Mr. John Corrigan:
Well, I mean, I've said what I've said about it being an uneven partnership and I think that's ... that's the way I would prefer to characterise it. In terms of access to the Minister, Minister Lenihan would have been the main player, obviously, and we ... I had good access to the Minister. The question of Trichet's letter was mentioned earlier and I don't think, actually, I responded to the question at the time, but we weren't shown Trichet's letter at the time. Again, just to ... just to, sort of ... I'm not into spinning any conspiracy theories but to underline the comment about the uneven nature of the ... the unequal nature of the partnership. So the officials, I think, like to think of the NTMA as providing technical advice. That was a word that they frequently used. I think the political expectation was for a lot more than that and, as I said, in the conclusions of my statement, I think we did whatever was asked of us. But at times we probably could have been brought more fully into the picture.