Mr. Simon McKeever:

Yes, that could happen. The talks have a very strict timeline of a year to be conducted because the agreement needs to be ratified by the various parliaments afterwards. The sense I got from a recent visit to Brussels is that there would be two years of negotiations for exit and probably a three-year interim deal where nothing would really change and then the UK would be out. Is Deputy Ryan asking whether banks are fully prepared for whatever might happen? When I was talking to them in September to October last year, they were beginning to do an assessment on what companies were trading into where. One of them told me the other day that from next year they will be building that into the credit assessment in a very formal way. One could ask if the UK were to come out, would a bank suddenly turn around and say it could not lend the money after all? It depends on whatever covenants are in the deal. I do not think the drawdown on a lot of loans is as great as what is sanctioned. That is what I am being told anecdotally as well.

I might get Mr. Daly to talk about alternative distribution but the substance of our presentation is about alternatives. Mr. Daly will be able to give a bit more detail. We are beginning to look at the data piece. I would raise two issues in that regard. If one is looking to house data, would one be better off housing it in the UK or in a European country in a post-Brexit environment? I think that is a question some of those ICT companies are asking. In the very initial stages of the dive we have done into those companies, ICT companies have a lot of hardware, as well as software, and they foresee considerable difficulties in getting some of the hardware back and forth into the UK from a customs point of view. I do not know whether Mr. Daly wants to add anything to what I have said.