Dr. Michael Somers:

I will respond to that question on a few different levels. If the State had not bailed out Allied Irish Bank, the situation would have been disastrous. In terms of the cost of these redundancies, I understand the pay-back period is one year. This was part of the action to reduce the overall cost of running the bank. As a result of reduced staff numbers and a reduction in the size of the bank, €400 million per annum will be saved. We are caught between a rock and a hard place on these matters.