Mr. Frank Daly:

I will take the first question on the long-term future of NAMA, what will happen to the surplus and whether there is provision for an interim dividend, which there is not in the legislation. There is little doubt at present that we will have surplus in excess of €2 billion and this will go back to the Exchequer. Quite obviously, it will be a matter for the Government at the time to decide what it does with it. With the money we have and the money we have generated we are repaying the debt, which is our top priority all the time. The debt has been, and will remain, a contingent liability on the Irish State, and if we do not repay it, that will have implications for access to money markets and confidence in Ireland. There is a bigger issue. I have said before the biggest social dividend we can deliver indirectly is to pay this back as quickly as we can. We will have paid back the senior debt by 2018, and we have a small amount of subordinated debt which is due to be repaid on 1 March 2020, and we will pay it on the due date. There is no advantage to anybody, not least to the State, in repaying it earlier. There will be other things to be done then.

With regard to senior debt, NAMA will have its work done by 2018, but we will continue in housing and with the Dublin docklands. Where we lease houses to housing bodies, there is a provision in the leases whereby they can buy them out at a certain stage during the lease if they want to do so. All of this is being done through a special purpose vehicle in NAMA, so the holding of all of these leases is an asset in itself and at some stage NAMA will be able to realise this asset and its value will go indirectly from NAMA to the Exchequer.

There is no doubt at all that there will be a surplus and that it will go to the Exchequer, but what it will do with it will be a matter for the Government. There are no constraints in that regard.

Perhaps Mr. McDonagh might wish to discuss lending rates.