Mr. David Duffy:

It's difficult to answer that not having been in the bank and also not having been in the country so I would be observing from a very far distance. I think my observation would be more limited to what was happening internationally. I think there was a crisis that was sown a long time before it happened. When you originally had Glass-Steagall allow retail and investment banking come together, that created a potential significant leverage and, ultimately, greater risk in the system. When you add to that the techniques of distribution around the globe and securitisation of asset classes where the well known subprime category and many others were combined in tranches of debt which were sold around the world, you spread that risk. which was already highly leveraged. Then on top of that, the light regulation or principles-based regulation, as it was mentioned, in numerous forums existed and the covenants and documents for loans became less restrictive and lighter and more forms of collateral were acceptable in any circumstance. And that principally allowed collateral on real estate to be offered up as part of the credit process. If you look at all of those taken together I think it was common practice across the globe to use real estate as collateral hence the subprime crisis that occurred globally. And that then was something of a cultural herd mentality that existed around the world in many countries and was no different here in Ireland.