Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

That is my view and I am entitled to it. Its introduction, the report states, was based on "very deficient information" and a lack of suspicion. The commission finds that crisis management in Ireland was rendered less than fully effective by insufficient appreciation of bank exposures on the part of all the relevant authorities and that decision-makers and their advisers during that fateful time in the autumn of 2008 maintained the view that the only relevant problem was the threat to the liquidity position of the banks. No major solvency issues were expected to arise and the guarantee would not be called upon - that was their misapprehension. The possibility that banks might experience disastrous losses in asset values did not appear even to have been considered. If accurate information on the banks' exposures had been available, it seems to the commission that a more limited guarantee, combined with a State takeover of at least one bank, might have been seriously contemplated. We need to ensure that in the future the authorities will have access to up-to-date and comprehensive information and that it will be shared appropriately among the relevant authorities in order that they will not end up, as the previous Government clearly did, flying blind.

I know the former Minister opposite has views about this. The decision was catastrophic for the State.

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