Mr. Bernard Byrne:

This topic has arisen previously. The targets of €3.5 billion and €3 billion for this and last year, respectively, were set as part of the recapitalisation of AIB and the Bank of Ireland. The targets could never have been envisaged as new money into the economy, as a total target of €7 billion this year or €8 billion next year would be in excess of anything the economy could even contemplate having. From a macrostatistic point of view, we could not provide a further €6 billion, €7 billion or €8 billion. Those amounts would never have been sustainable, given the size of the economy.