Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Emergency structures to manage that crisis, to be overseen by Government, were designed and designed very carefully and would have been activated if necessary. That work was carried on in secret by a small number of officials from the Department of Finance, the Department of the Taoiseach, the Central Bank and the National Treasury Management Agency. Given the scale of what might have happened, which I am thankful did not happen, the full resources of the State would have been mobilised, including the Garda and the Defence Forces. It is always clear that in the change from one currency to another currency, or in a changed currency, these issues, including capital controls, are always discussed. It would have been necessary to pass emergency legislation providing exceptional powers to the local authorities.

While it is not appropriate to give the details of the contingency plans, the issues considered would have clearly dealt with producing, supplying and circulating a new currency, supplying essential supplies of fuel, electricity and medicines and so on - the normal running of any country. It was absolutely appropriate that those discussions around those contingency plans took place. At the end of all of that, had it happened it could have happened very quickly. As the Governor of the Central Bank said, we do not talk about the details of discussions that took place here but there were those discussions that took place between the Department of Finance, the Department of the Taoiseach, the Central Bank and the NTMA about very serious indications that it might have been necessary to introduce those contingency plans. I am glad it did not happen and we are now in a very different spot from those days of early 2011 and 2012.

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