Mr. John Beggs:

And so what we are saying here is there's been quite a significant increase in living standards and employment over the years, and based on the information available in February 2008, the opinion was that most of these gains could be held, you know, as the economy slowed. Of course, we were only months away from a significant change in the global economic outlook, which, just to answer ... to add some information to what you're asking me: the volume of world trade declined by 20% in the 12 months from April 2008 to April 2009, and the world economy went into recession. So this is based on, as it says, "The fundamentals of the economy remain sound, though, so growth should pick up in 2009/2010 as the downturn in housing bottoms out and global growth improves". So a key assumption is that the global economy improves. That is not what happened. And as Irish GDP or changes in Irish GDP are extremely dependent on changes in exports, given that in 2008 exports were probably 90% of GDP, the trend in exports determines the trend in GDP.