Mr. Bernard Byrne:

A couple of things need to be borne in mind in this respect. We mentioned in our opening statement the position we adopted as we tried to address the very high level of non-performing loans we had. Over the past five or six years, we have engaged significantly with customers. As I have indicated, there has been €1.3 billion of write-offs on the mortgage side. A similar volume of write-offs has taken place across SME and other portfolios as we have tried to address this issue. We have successfully reduced the balance to €11 billion and we have indicated that this figure will be closer to €10 billion by the end of the year, which is great. However, non-performing loans will still comprise 17% of the bank's balance sheet. The European norm is approximately 5.5%. The primary issue of focus for the ECB and the regulatory authorities is the level of non-performing loans on a bank's balance sheet. The stress tests we mentioned earlier make that very obvious when they focus on the capital position of the banks. For that reason, we emphasised in our opening statement that it is of the utmost strategic importance that we continue to address this topic. I suppose that is consistent with Deputy Pearse Doherty's comments. The level of arrears remains very high. It must be addressed and dealt with. It was in that context that I said we are keeping all options under active review at this time. I include the options that have been mentioned, such as portfolio sales and disposals, if appropriate, in that context. Any attempt in that direction will focus on commercial portfolios in the first instance. We are continuing to work as hard as we can on the private dwelling house portfolio and other portfolios. This issue will have to be addressed. A famous investor, Warren Buffett, once said that if something cannot last forever, it will end. The ECB's view is that the number of non-performing loans in Irish banks must be reduced. If this issue is not resolved, the consequences in terms of capital, etc., will be very significant and that will feed through to pricing.