Dr Alan Ahearne, special advisor to Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, has said that when the Government considered NAMA, everything was looked at from every angle, turned upside down and not driven by ideology.
The decisions were driven by pragmatism, he said. He was speaking at NUIG at the Paddy Ryan Memorial Lecture last night.
The economist said he believes, based on the available data, that Ireland has moved from 'the brink of destruction' to a period of stabilisation in 2009 to renewed growth in 2010.
The former US federal reserve economist told an audience of over 400 last night in Galway that when the banks were on the brink of collapse, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet told Finance Minister Brian Lenihan: 'Save your banks'.
Dr Ahearne said that Ireland at that time had faced a perfect storm of a banking crisis, a crisis in the public finances and an economic crisis
He said that letting banks fail in an attempt to illustrate what he said economists call moral hazard, is like 'a surgeon in A&E refusing to treat a car crash victim as if to say that will stop him speeding'
He said that financial regulation is changing and added that this is the best approach to dealing with risk taking and that this would be of most assistance to the economy.
