Mr. Jeremy Masding:

Perhaps, for once, I should be even more clear on what we did. We wound up the scheme, which is the ultimate. I would hate anyone to think I would not be transparent with the committee. It is important that we reflect on why a management team would take such drastic action because it affects people's lives. Of course, our primary goal is to stay in business and capital is scarce and we have to protect it. The following are some quick facts and figures. The trustees of the scheme had indicated to me that the required annual funding for the schemes needed to be tripled, from €18 million to €55 million. I am sorry, but that is just not a test I can pass. Second, in the year-end accounts the deficit on the balance sheet between the assets and the liabilities was €311 million. Again, I am sorry, we just do not have that spare capital flying around.

As with any management team, we had to make choices. The final dimension is that one makes those contributions once but a defined benefit scheme has an open ended liability. The risk for us was consistently coming back to the taxpayer's pocket for more capital.