Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

With regard to the dinner in Druid's Glen, it was not inappropriate for me to sit and discuss the economy or economic issues with the people who are in business or who are economic advisers in their own right and have economic consultancy firms. I would think that is not an inappropriate thing to do. What has proven to be a problem in terms of perception is that we are now projecting back what we know now, which is subsequent to what we knew then. Clearly people are making the effort to project some foreknowledge on my behalf of what subsequently happened and to suggest that, therefore, I was some way involved in an interaction with Anglo Irish Bank.

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