Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

That question has been put before. The Gallery has heard it enough this morning. Before I bring in Deputy Shane Ross, Mr. Boucher must clarify a few points. There has been wide acceptance that his engagement with the committee on a number of questions has been at a minimalist level, if I could even call it that. I wish to put that on record.

An issue has been outstanding since Mr. Boucher came before the committee and I still have not got my head around it. A question was put to Mr. Boucher, as it was put to AIB, on the absolute cost of the institution reducing the standard variable rate on domestic mortgages by 0.5%. The figure we got from AIB yesterday afternoon was that private dwelling houses on its domestic book is worth approximately €14.3 billion and a 0.5% reduction would result in a loss of €71 million to AIB. On the figures Mr. Boucher gave us this morning, the domestic book of Bank of Ireland is approximately €21 billion and if the bank reduced its standard variable rate by 0.5% its loss would be €29 million, approximately a third less than AIB. Could he explain to us how it is the case that a smaller loss would be incurred following a 0.5% reduction given that the loan book is bigger?