Mr. Fergus Murphy:

I think the ACC Bank and the ICC bank were virtuous and did an awful lot of very good work in the Irish economy over a number of decades. At this stage in the development of our economy and financial services, I don't think you specifically need that kind of a specialist institution. If I look at AIB, for example, and if I look at other banks in the Irish market ... if I look at Rabobank where I came from, they would have very strong sectoral expertise in the sectors they choose to work in. So, for example, Rabobank would be the largest food and agri-bank in the world and they would work from farm gate to food plate with some of the smallest farmers and some of the largest food companies in the world. Similarly, I think, in Ireland AIB and, indeed, Bank of Ireland, would have a very strong focus on agri. They'd have a very strong focus on other sectors like ICT, biotechnology, health care, hotels, restaurants, leisure, etc. So, at this stage, Senator, I don't think we'd probably need that specialism and it was probably more appropriate in the formative years of the Irish economy back in the '50s and the '60s.