Mr. Alan Dukes:

I have not said that at all. The impairment provision we have to make in our accounts is a source of considerable worry and concern for the bank and for the taxpayer. The more impaired the loans, the less likely it is the taxpayer is going to get a return. We are not just sitting there and allowing impairments to drown us out. We have to do something about it. One of the drivers of impairment is the condition of the market, which is not something we decide. The Senator asked why it is taking us so long. First, we took over the mortgage book for residential mortgages and investment properties in the middle of last year. As I have said, it was a pretty bad book. We had a lot of work to do before we could figure out what condition the book was in. It was not like a normal takeover in which one would carry out a due diligence operation before taking on the book. It was simply transferred to us as it was and we had to deal with it. We had to arrange and organise ourselves to begin to implement the MARS process, which we have done.