Mr. Brendan Burgess:

No. On switching, the Central Bank brought in great regulations some years ago about switching current accounts because if one switched for example, from Bank of Ireland to AIB there were problems if the old bank did not co-operate, such as direct debits or standing orders not going through. There were all sorts of issues. The switching code put a requirement onto the old bank to co-operate. In switching mortgages, however, there is no requirement for the old bank to co-operate. A person could go in to the old bank with the cheque from the new bank for the outstanding mortgage amount of €326,000 and then that person is finished with the old bank. The only real problem and difficulty for the switching of mortgages lies with the credit procedures of the new bank and there is also the legal paperwork etc. There is also the general inertia - there are a lot of borrowers who could save money by switching, and they do not do it. I have not decided if I should have sympathy for those people. While it is okay for me and I would be quite happy and comfortable with switching, somebody else might not be comfortable going through that process and they just stay. I have spoken to some people who have no idea and they do not understand they are being overcharged. I tell them they are paying 1% more than they should be. One person paying a mortgage of €200,000 asked me how much was 1% of that. I was very shocked at that. I assumed that everybody knew that 1% of €200,000 was €2,000 and that would be the amount to pay but he did not understand that.