Mr. Donal Forde:

I have seen in the last while media commentary that we were chasing Anglo. That isn't fair, I don't think. I certainly wasn't conscious that we were chasing Anglo but we were chasing the pack, if I can describe it in those terms. We were regularly being challenged by the investors, by shareholders and by the analysts as to how we were going to keep pace, not just with Anglo but with other Irish banks and with some very fast-growing UK and continental banks.

So, yes, it's true to say there was a lot of pressure for performance. But Anglo ... see I'm careful to say that because, to be fair, it's true that lending was the core of where the growth was coming from but the bank was trying to diversify away from that. Certainly one of my objectives all the time - formally given to me - was to try to diversify the earning stream of the divisions, so more fees and charges income, more from health and life insurance and the like. So there was an objective to diversify but it's true that ... that the substance of our performance was coming from loan growth.