Professor Patrick Honohan:

The Deputy has characterised very well the sort of situation where there is a clear need for restructuring of such debts. The banks will be obliged to take a loss in respect of such restructuring, that is for sure. Do the banks have enough capital? They have large blocks of capital into which they have not yet made great inroads. They have taken some provisions but they have not crystallised the loans in question into sustainable solutions that will give rise to a cost for them. Do they have enough? That is a different question. They certainly have enough to facilitate large amounts of restructuring. As stated earlier, they will need more capital. However, that is not the point. The point is-----