Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Yes, thank you. Okay. On page 11 again, Mr. Fitzgerald, you say, and I quote:

[T]he bank found it extremely difficult to reduce or stop lending as the crisis worsened. This in part was down to contractual commitments to borrowers and also the risk that, without further lending, some development projects would cease and result in significant immediate loan default.

And then you say that in the first part of 2008 a, by any standards massive, €6.5 billion was lent out.

This is a ... is this a very, very kind of a stark situation, Mr. Fitzgerald, that you are locked into something as if it is out of your control, despite the fact that everything should be saying that you should be cutting back on lending? I mean, a picture that came to my mind, would it be too dramatic to describe Anglo as let's say a "legal prescription drug supplier" with a highly addicted client who shouldn't ... who should be weaned off the stuff but you are terrified of the effects of cold turkey, economic arrest, cardiac arrest or something like this? Is ... does this paint, does this in your mind paint a very stark picture in retrospect?