Martin Mansergh, Michael Soden, Peter Matthews, Elaine Hutson, Paul Sommerville - Jan 13th 2010

Martin Mansergh (Minister of State for Department of Finance) was elected to the Dáil in 2007 after five years in the Seanad, Mansergh is a former civil servant who has been a key member of the Fianna Fáil party for many years. An ardent supporter of ex-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Mansergh has retained a strong sense of optimism throughout the financial crisis, stating: "We're not going to get anywhere by completely throwing overboard our self respect. We have achieved a tremendous amount in the past 20 years - they were the best 20 years in our history. There will be cycles - we rose very high and we are where we are now. We have to work our way out of this intelligently." Although he is not the smoothest of Fianna Fáil's politicians, his loyalty to the party ensured a junior ministerial position.

Michael Soden (former CEO of Bank of Ireland) was Bank of Ireland's CEO until 2004 when he was forced to resign after accessing adult websites at work, an act forbidden by bank policy. He has been outspoken in his criticism regarding the current financial crisis and has urged Ireland's banking chiefs to "do the honourable thing" and resign. He was an advocate of bank recapitalisation, and also stated his opinion that banks should have been broken up into their component parts, saying: "With the new entities that emerge -- separate insurance companies, separate fund management companies, separate mortgage banks and international activities -- investors would then be given the opportunity to invest in those preferred financial activities that they believe have better futures."

Peter Matthews (Banking executive) is a former executive at ICC Bank. He has been against the NAMA proposal from the beginning, calling the initiative "a new Titanic". 

Elaine Hutson (Lecturer and academic) is an award winning financial academic who has also lectured in both UCD and DCU.

Paul Sommerville (Head of Private Clients, Delta Index) has over 18 years experience in the financial services industry and joins Delta Index from City Index Advisory where he was a senior trading advisor on spread betting and contracts for difference for 6 yrs. Prior to this, Paul was Head of Interest Rate Futures at Tullettand Tokyo Japan for 5yrs. Paul has a BA Degree in Pure Economics from University College Dublin (information from www.deltaindex.com/About/ManagementTeam/)