Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Let us get the facts clear. In autumn of 2007, we had a major problem with regard to liquidity in the international system. The US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and everyone else including the Central Bank of Ireland, were working in the context of trying to ensure we could maintain liquidity in the system. This is all documented for anyone to see. By autumn 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed, there was a solvency crisis at that point because the whole banking system was broken. The investment banking model was broken. The regulatory system that applied then was no longer appropriate, as we have now seen from the response of every other jurisdiction. Almost every other country has had to recapitalise its banks. Every other country has been involved in having a state guarantee-----

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