Mr. Christopher Lehane:

That is correct. I will explain the position. The classic situation is where the woman is on the hook for €300,000 and the man, within his reasonable living expenses, is being allowed to contribute to the mortgage. If the woman is not working, he will be able to pay the full mortgage within his reasonable living expenses. From the point of view of his creditors, reasonable living expenses allows him to pay the full mortgage. However, it is the reality that in many cases where the wife may not be working and reasonable living expenses are not coming from the wife, they are coming out of funds that could be taken and paid to creditors. A minimum of €5,000 is asked for, but it will not be asked for immediately. It will be asked for whenever the spouse is in a position to contribute. The official assignee's role is to be fair to both creditors and debtors. In a couple of years, it may be that half of the interest in a house in Dublin is such that it is very much in the interest of the spouse to pay €5,000 when the house is worth up to €60,000 more. It is a commercial decision to try to see how people can get back the half interest in the house. My role is to be fair to creditors and debtors, and I believe €5,000 is reasonable.