Mr. Lar Bradshaw:

I am sorry, I may have confused you. At the meeting on 20 October, the board agreed an upper limit of €375 million. This was now 23 October and I am referring to the meeting with Bernard McNamara. I went along to the meeting to agree with Bernard McNamara, the majority shareholder, with 74% of shares. It was to agree the final bid because we had to have the same number. That was the purpose of that meeting. During that meeting, it was not a very long meeting, but the two most significant things I recall are we got Bernard McNamara to agree. He was of the view that it would take more than €400 million to succeed. We are all worried about the company next door who bought the other site and there is marriage value so he could maybe bid more. Bernard McNamara was of the view that it would take more than €400 million and we pointed out that we were not mandated to go beyond €375 million. There was a discussion of that where Bernard McNamara agreed that any amount north of €375 million we bid would be for his account and at his risk only and that our shareholding would not dilute. That is a very significant negotiation point for us to have secured. In fairness to Mr. McNamara, it was not that we were brilliant negotiators, he reasonably readily agreed to that. We discussed a bid of €411 million.

That was one item that was discussed that night. The other item that was discussed was that at one point Mr. McNamara told us he was switching horses. We were under the impression, and it was the case, that Royal Bank of Scotland, ie Ulster Bank, was the bank he was talking to. Ulster Bank was becoming much more active in funding significant property and development deals. He told us he had switched horses to Anglo Irish Bank and Bank of Ireland. That was news to me and I was a little surprised.