Mr. Paul Gallagher:

We were satisfied that was the case and we told them that. The other was could the Minister consult with the Central Bank to ensure that it provided it, if it wasn't going to provide it. The other matter that was looked at from an early stage was the possibility of nationalisation of a failing institution. The other matter that was referred to was a private sector solution. And I think one thing that does need to be clarified is the Department of Finance and the Government were very concerned, if at all possible, to get a private sector solution which meant getting somebody else to take over a weakened solution from the private sector so that the taxpayer would not be at risk. Those were critical issues that were looked at. In that context they had to look at the competition issues because if you had to take over an institution suddenly, you had to ensure that you got competition approval. That was being very carefully looked at.