Mr. Andrew McDowell:

There are two main areas and two main reasons why our exposures to Ireland have been less than in other countries. The first was that prior to the crisis and even during the crisis, up until 2014, there was a lack of an institutional partner in Ireland to channel EIB funding into the economy. The establishment of the SBCI and the establishment of the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, with which we also hope to partner on some equity investment-type projects, have helped to address that institutional gap that existed in Ireland. We are beginning to see the fruits of that already. Our exposure to Ireland is approximately 2.5% of GDP, which is less than the EU average of about 3.5%, but if we keep lending at the pace we have been lending over the past six to nine months - and the €1 billion this year is based on that flow translating and being maintained over the course of the year - we will gradually build up our stock of exposures in Ireland towards the EU average over the course of four to five years.