Mr. Dick Spring:

We have taken steps in the bank to reduce salaries. The management have reduced their salaries by 15% in the past few months, the next level of management have reduced their salaries by 7.5% and there is effectively a pay freeze in the bank. We are taking steps primarily because we must take out costs. The bank works in an international environment and when we sought a new chief executive the then Minister for Finance, the late Brian Lenihan, instructed us to find somebody who was not an insider. We trawled around the world to find a chief executive and having interviewed many we found an Irish-American who we felt was suitable for the job because he had vast experience of retail and investment banking.