Mr. Brian Goggin:

I think, Senator, based on the submission by Bank of Ireland under category 16 and 17 here, that's a very reasonable question. Bank of Ireland had a very, very deliberate policy of keeping credit policy tight and dealing with exceptions on an exceptions basis and I can go back to 1996, when I was appointed to the senior management team at Bank of Ireland and I joined the credit committee for the first time, and we dealt with exceptions back then and I recall at one stage myself even saying, "Why do we consider exceptions? Should we not broaden the policy?" And I got a very early lesson in terms of the culture of Bank of Ireland at that level and I was informed that the policy of the bank was very much to keep the credit policy rigid and tight and to force exceptions into a deliberate decision-making process and I would submit, Senator, that that approach, notwithstanding the fact that the level of exceptions reported here appear high, although the paper is somewhat qualified, I would submit-----