Mr. Scott Rankin:

I will say "repay its debts" then. There were very few people prepared to invest in anything in Ireland, so that transaction was seen as very beneficial to the State at the time. Had the investors from North America not stepped up at that point, we would have had to put another €1 billion into Bank of Ireland.

As Mr. Carville says, it was a matter for Bank of Ireland at the time as to whether it was prepared to allow investors in to do due diligence on the company.