Mr. David Duffy:

Which questions should I tackle? On the question of high pay not being addressed, we do not see the percentage of pay as an issue but the absolute cost of pay in the bank and resources. We have been trying to address both and, as we continue to work, members will see the benefits of it.

Perhaps then the committee might have a more positive view of what we are achieving. I will come back to the reference on page 9 to buy-to-let properties and the absolute levels.

With regard to the case studies, the representation of irresponsible lending and the question of whether the people are still in the bank, all I can tell the committee is that AIB is represented by a new board and a new executive. A very significant number of senior people in the bank who were there are gone through early retirement and all kinds of mechanisms. I now know as matter of fact who did what and whether they are all gone because I was not here. More important is the policy we have in place on lending and the skills sets we should have. It is one which I am confident will lead to prudent risk-taking and appropriate investment in the right sectors of growth in the economy. I firmly believe that is the case and the team is experienced enough and has been through many of these ups and downs before. They understand what sensible risk-taking is and the appropriate sectoral skills we require to do that. We have invested heavily in them and are investing heavily in the sectoral reports on the economy. We are putting together the whole package of education, skills and risk-taking. I hope we will be able to demonstrate that we are doing a sensible job in terms of investing in the economy. However, I cannot give more assurance around the individual specifics in the names of people in the company. No one will be allowed to engage in the kind of lending to which the committee referred given the construct we have.

A question was asked about the absolute level of increase in arrears. Perhaps Mr. O'Connor might comment on this before I do. There is a reference to a €1 billion increase on page 9.