Professor Patrick Honohan:

On the first question regarding transparent terms, if we start to codify this it will take months and months. It is fairly new territory. We cannot say we will simply do the same as they do in England. I am hoping - I have not seen it yet - that the banks will come up to the line on this. It is better if they design something that makes business sense but is transparent. If we try to design it from a distance, we may start with something that is clunky and needs to be revised. I am not saying I have this in the back pocket and am going to do it next week. It will take months, because any of these codes of conduct must go through consultation processes, legal considerations and so on, so it is complicated. We wrote to the banks in February. I expected more from them, but when has that not been the case?