Mr. Brendan Burgess:

Without the cap it would not matter. Let us deal with today's figures. The average rate is approximately 3.5%. If the legislation has the unintended consequence of stopping a lender which wants to come in and charge 4.5%, so what? We do not want lenders to come in to take money at 4.5%. The legislation will not stop the likes of The Frank Mortgage. The only lender I am aware of that is trying to get authorisation from the Central Bank to provide mortgages is Frank. It is not put off by the legislation.