Mr. Alan Dukes:

As I stated, we are pushing ahead with the implementation of the mortgage arrears resolution strategy, MARS, and the range of forbearance products included in it. I would like to go further. It is something we have just begun to discuss in the bank. If we look at the most distressed part of the mortgage book, there will be cases where it will be impossible to envisage the mortgage being fully paid off in the contracted term. We will examine introducing another arrangement in addition to what is provided in MARS to bring some relief to people in this position. We have only just begun this reflection. Our first concern is to get MARS into action.

It is clear in a general way, as Ms Muldoon and others have stated, that if there is to be any type of domestic market recovery in the short term, measures must be taken to relieve some of the burden of debt on consumer expenditure. We are looking at a corner of this problem to see whether we can come up with creative ways of doing so. I cannot be more specific than this because we have only just begun our reflection.