John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Thank you. Gentlemen, good afternoon ... or evening I suppose now. There is only ten minutes, so I'd ask you to be as brief as you possibly can.

First of all, Mr. Beggs, just from your opening statement, and I want to put a quote to you. On page 1 you spoke and I quote "From my perspective, there were limitations on Group-wide participation and decision-making in AIB arising from the divisional structure and the hierarchical nature of the organisation." Can I ask you briefly to give examples, maybe, of that? Did you raise those concerns within the organisation at the time, or were you ... did you have discussions with other managers or management level people within AIB at the time about those hierarchical structures within the nature of AIB?