Mr. David Duffy:

In response to Deputy Twomey, there are a few issues. First, one year ago we did not have the capability but we do now. It is a team that is much stronger, better trained and, one hopes, much better at delivery of solutions. To that point, the 14,000 who fell into arrears this year, who have been managed well and who have moved out of arrears reflect an indication of that capacity and we are trying to move at volume and support issues. We could have had a much higher arrears number were we not good at taking people out of early arrears situations. That is the first point.

The second point to which I would draw the Deputy's attention is the mortgage number may be small. In addition to our own capacity and ability, we were in a position in which there was a significant impediment to communication. The code of conduct on mortgage arrears, CCMA, really was very difficult, as was the ruling by Miss Justice Dunne. That said, one might ask what could be done if one did not operate in that world. The number in our accounts is €475 million and other than €38 million, the majority of that went to corporates and commercials. This is because in that space, we are under no such impediment. We can go ahead and negotiate and execute a deal and have done so. As I stated, 90% of the population is in an early or a longer-term structured deal. Consequently, in the corporate and SME sector, where we are dealing with that world and are not under any of these artificial constraints, we have been much more effective at execution. Consequently, I ask the Deputy, what is a motivation? People talk about whether a bank should or could or does not wish to do this but it is very simple. If the taxpayer is to get money back from AIB, the bank must prove it can solve these situations and has adequate capital.

If we do not do that soon, that will be a massive dilution of the value back to the taxpayer. Therefore, we are motivated to do it, in the exact same way as lending. If we do not lend, we will not have a revenue pool that can sustain the bank and generate capital for the future. We absolutely have to deliver on this. All I am saying to the committee today is that we are maybe not satisfying the committee by providing enough detail upfront and speaking about one quarter, but I honestly believe that the institution and all of its resources have done far more than that. Perhaps it is our fault that we are not getting that across, and that as the committee looks at the next 12 months and six months, we will get significant volumes of this work completed. That will lead, I would estimate, to a much higher number of write-offs as we go through this process because it is a commitment that we have made that where it is unaffordable, we will write it off. I would hope that we are not judged too severely in a short window and that we will demonstrate by our actions that there is a significant amount of progress happening in this space.