Mr. Willie Walsh:

If I am honest, I think five years is a long time. We concluded that we were prepared to offer five years following significant internal debate. Given that no guarantee and no commitment exists today, and the Government has no influence over that issue today, we believe this is a significant concession and commitment that has been given by IAG to make an effort to appease what I consider to be unnecessary concern about the operation. A number of members of the committee have challenged me to give a specific commitment and I have said that I am happy to give a specific commitment for Cork and Shannon, which I have now given publicly, but I think the five years is more than adequate. I would hope and expect that through that five-year period people would be able to see what has happened, would be able to witness the commitments being delivered by us, would be able to see the security that exists through those services and would be delighted to see how we are succeeding and retaining those services. That commitment does not exist today. You do not have it and you cannot get it and we are the only people who would be prepared to give it. I would go so far as to say that I do not believe the Aer Lingus management could offer that today because it would have other shareholders today who would say: "Why are you doing that?" We can give it by virtue of the fact, as I said, that our approach here is to acquire 100% of the airline and having direct control of it being able to give commitments that nobody else could give.