Mr. Michael Torpey:

-----with operations in the country, just to clarify that, if I may. Your question really is: if we did have, as I understand it, a well-controlled process, how did we ... how did we come to lose money? And I think the core of it lies in the fact that the RBS Group was a group which, as you rightly suggest, was targeted on growing its business in Ireland. In particular having invested very heavily in both the purchase of the banks in Ireland and the systems costs that were applied, they sought to grow to be a competitor with, an equal with, or indeed to match the incumbent full service banks, being AIB and Bank of Ireland. The strategy, therefore, was one of growth. The growth was predicated on an environment where there was a near universal view that the growth prospects for the Irish market continued to be strong and that Ireland was on a good path, shall we say. Any ambitions to grow the business were subject to the constraints of the risk appetite of the group, subject to the controls, procedures and policies of the RBS Group, as transmitted to Ulster Bank. So while we had an objective to grow the business, a clear desire and ambition to grow the business, the RBS Group was not tolerant of relaxing standards and controls in pursuit of that growth.