Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their helpful engagement. I wish to make two observations.

Mr. Duffy described a number of factors that play into the overall decision-making process. In terms of the interest rate that applied to variable mortgages, he said that operational costs were one of the factors. How significant a portion of the overall decision-making process is represented by the bank's operational costs? Does he regularly compare, with his peers across the eurozone, the bank's operational costs and analyse how they compare with others? If so, how do they compare? Is the bank at the point where there is no more latitude for its operational costs?

My next few questions are perhaps more suited to Mr. O'Connor. Earlier he described that most of the SMEs he engages with in Galway, that are in significant financial difficulty, diversified away from their core activity into property construction and management. He said that he tries at all times to create a separation between those two entities so that the core business, if it is viable and sustainable on its own, continues to trade, survive and thus retains and protects the jobs already employed in that core business. How distinct or distant is that separation? Ultimately, one is talking about one or two individuals who are deeply involved in both activities. Does the bank require, if the core business becomes substantially profitable, that some profits are diverted to the non-core business which is an asset that just sits there and is not worth a lot? How does the mechanism work? How is it determined which element of the core business's profits can be diverted towards the non-core construction activity?