Mr. Tom Considine:

At the time that we joined we were additional to the board but there has been an almost complete changeover in the meantime. Bank of Ireland's board has included people from the public service in the past but they were not public service directors. They had careers in the public service. One such individual was on the board when we joined it in January 2009. Mr. MacSharry was on the board at one stage, as was Ken Whitaker. The idea that public servants could contribute to the board of Bank of Ireland is not new.