Mr. Dick Spring:

Dr. Somers and I have made it clear that we come from a public service background and respect the entitlement of this committee to invite us here. We would appreciate if there was a formal structure for doing so. The bank is owned by the taxpayer and our responsibility is to the taxpayer and the Members of the Oireachtas represent the taxpayer. We are trying to be as open as possible with the committee in the situation we face and with which we are dealing. We are giving it our best shot to bring this bank back to viability in the shortest possible time. David Duffy told this committee he hoped to have this bank back in profitability by 2014. That certainly is our target.