Mr. Michael McAteer:

The estimate of €600 million was based on the information available to us. We had completed the 2009 accounts and the actuaries had gone through the work. Using the information presented to me by EMB, which had been independently brought in by ourselves, PwC and Milliman, that was the best estimate at the time.

Because we were concerned about the continuing movement in case reserves on a week-by-week basis, we took a further review of the case files, of which there are approximately 26,000 at any one time within QIL. Part of that review process resulted in what the actuaries felt was continued volatility in the case movements. For every euro of case reserve level the actuaries, based on their experience, tend to add on another €1.5, on average. For example, current reserves in the UK model are €1.3 billion. That is made up of €485 million of case reserves at company level, plus €588 million, which is the actuaries' estimate of where that €465 million will end up. The final component of €300 million is an adverse deviation provision which the actuaries and auditors have recommended to us as a prudent way to take into account unknown unknowns that may occur over the next ten to 15 years in settling those claims.