Mr. Sean O'Sullivan:

No, I have not. No one has taken notice of that. It is very unfortunate that this is a common practice in Ireland, which is a small country with a population of 4.5 million. If we had twice, or three or four times the population, as would be expected in a country of this geographic reach, we would probably have much more competition and that would probably eliminate bad practice, but without that competition there is no threat of such bad practice being eliminated. I would like the Central Bank to go further than it has. It has already said that it is a bad idea but that has not changed the practice of requiring personal guarantees under circumstances which no international bank or international standards would require. If a company is profitable and has been in operation for years, why should its executives or founders still be required to have personal guarantees? It is not a standard business practice; it is odd and it is offensive.