Mr. Michael Torpey:

The British state put something like €45-€46 billion into RBS at a time prior to the requirement for capital in Ulster, so it is not a like-for-like comparison to compare moneys put in for one purpose to moneys that were subsequently required by Ulster Bank from its shareholder. Notwithstanding that, Senator, the scale of support required by Ulster Bank from RBS was extremely large and there is no denying that. That requirement came as a result of a strategy which was implemented in good faith but proved with the benefit of hindsight to be founded on poor assumption, and, very specifically, the universal or near universal assumption of the continued growth prospects for the Irish market and all of the opportunity that that would offer, that assumption, which was a critical underpinning of the RBS approved strategy for Ulster Bank, proved to be an ill-founded assumption. And the direct outcome of that was the level of provisions that had to be taken by Ulster Bank in relation to loans and while I wasn't there to see what the ... how that played out, I understand from the testimony ... part of the testimony I did hear yesterday, that related to provisioning levels, some of which may or not be clawed back in the future.