Mr. Richard Woodhouse:

In terms of who is buying, it is a combination of US, continental Europe and UK parties - private equity houses, funds and private family offices looking for an up-tick in yield. We have been satisfied with considerable interest in the UK where - without giving any specific details - we are probably disposing of approximately €100 million worth of property per month. When one looks at the underlying parties there, one of the reasons for liquidity is cited as a hedge on the euro's collapse. People are looking at UK and sterling-denominated assets as part of their reinvestment portfolio. In the US, funds are being raised on a pan-European basis and an allocation of that European-wide fund is allocated to Ireland. It is a small part of the overall - perhaps 10% or 15% - but nevertheless for some of the properties we have in our portfolio the quantum that is available within those sub-divisions of the fund makes some of our assets of interest.

As the Deputy rightly acknowledges the difficulties of the portfolio shrinking and being left with a more difficult portfolio will be a challenge. Perhaps a little more reflective of where we are in the residential mortgage portfolio area, he asked what is to be done for people with 20 years paid down and five years to go at the point the bank is wound up. Almost certainly, with the residual rump of Irish property it will be sold in one shape or form on a block basis at that point in time, possibly to another bank here and possibly to funds that have raised a larger sum with greater confidence in the improvement in the Irish economy at that point.