Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Boucher, Mr. Farrell and Mr. McLoughlin. I wish to pose two questions, the first of which relates to the standard variable rate and the second to the recent announcement made by the Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Honohan, on loan-to-value ratios. We have been thrashing out these matters all afternoon and, as I understand it, the position is quite simple. If a customer is paying at a rate of 4.4% and the bank is borrowing money at 1.5%, the margin of profit for the bank is 3.25%. What is an acceptable margin of profit for Bank of Ireland in this matter? Where does the bank stand on the net interest margin? Is there a level of acceptability of profit and are there circumstances where the bank is taking too much profit and pushing customers too far in the context of the margin to which I refer?