Mr. Tom Considine:

No, but I wish to be helpful to the Deputy if he could give me a minute. The way I look at the public interest is that there are a number of dimensions to it. At the State level, the first thing we have to do is repay the Exchequer and the taxpayer by remunerating the money they have loaned us - in other words, the €2.8 billion of preference shares and contingent capital at about 10% a year. We must enable the Minister to be in a position to cash in his shares if, in future, he so wishes. The second thing is to provide a stable banking system to support the economy. As the Chairman said, there is a real need to support enterprise and the rebuilding of the mortgage market. We are doing both of those things. Third, the governance changes I referred to are being made to ensure that never again will the Exchequer and the taxpayer be called upon to bail out the bank. The fourth matter at that level is to generate the capital we will need to support that lending to the business and mortgage sectors. In my view, they are top-level public interest requirements to which we must pay attention.

The next level down is the sectoral level, which is about consumers, business people and mortgage borrowers. While the Minister has not given us any specific directions in that area, it is clear from the guidelines that he has given us on lending to SMEs, that it is an area where he wants support for the economy. Equally, it is clear from all of the debate that is going on about mortgages that the Minister wants us to give attention - as the Central Bank has made clear, as well - to how mortgage arrears are worked out. That is what I see as the public interest.