Mr. Pat Lardner:

To follow on from Mr. Marc Coleman's comments, we have seen a number of wins. I will not go into the specifics of company names but a good number are involved either directly in the funds business or as a consequence of needing asset management related solutions that link into funds or direct asset management provision. I stressed the idea of relentless promotion in my opening comments. I used the word relentless specifically on the basis that the timeframe is the here and now, as Mr. Coleman points out. We know that in specific cases being able to get to senior executives to give them good information and good access has been very important. All of the work being done by the various players has been welcome but it needs to continue for a period of time backed up by very clear communications about requirements. When people go through the two steps of the process they do their fact find to decide whether they will make an application for regulatory authorisation and we give them as much clarity and information about it as we can. When they want to engage in that process we bring them through the regulatory service. I describe it as a service and we provide it as quickly and as efficiently as possible. It is not to say we sacrifice or compromise on standards but ultimately business people want certainty and they want it as quickly as possible.

On the point about capacity, we are very supportive of anything the Central Bank would like to do in resourcing. We have a very good and open dialogue with the Central Bank. We provide it with feedback as we hear of things in the marketplace in an appropriate way respecting our different mandates.

There was a point made about regulatory arbitrage. I made the comment in my opening statement about raising both political and competitive tensions in Europe, which is the case. We should not assume everybody else has the same mandates and approach we have. It does not mean it is right or wrong; it is just a fact. There is ultimately a link between our economic policy, which is around jobs growth and economic growth, and how we deploy it from the point of view of getting firms to do business here. We want to see a fair and equal playing field across Europe. It is a pretty competitive marketplace out there.

There was a point made about promotion and it is why I mentioned the way we partner. There is very good work being done by IDA Ireland, the foreign consulates and embassies. There is also a very joined-up approach to promotion in lots of other jurisdictions in a six-month to 12-month timeframe. We need to be top of our game in that regard.