Mr. David Duffy:

None of the rate setting has been about that; it is about cost of funding. It has absolutely nothing to do with the ECB funding either. It is absolutely not correlated. It is the cost of funding we, as a bank, have. It is not connected to the ECB and it is not comparable with other countries. It is a cost of funding issue. It is nothing to do with the Directorate General for Competition or a dominant position, and it is from an historic low, not from an historic high. If Senator Byrne recalls, rates were at 3% and they were materially loss-making for the bank. We are about breaking even to marginally profitable on that rate. To reassure the Senator, that is the criteria – sustainable profitability, not any other. I am willing to be challenged by anybody in any domain on that subject.

With regard to the commitment not to repossess, we cannot make that commitment. If there is no threat of repossession, then one could ask what would happen. We are saying that we will do everything in our power to avoid that. We will work with the insolvency agency to avoid it and with individuals to try to come up with an affordability principle, and if it is not affordable, we will do a write-off. We are doing everything we can to avoid that circumstance but I cannot and will not give a blanket commitment.