Mr. Patrick O'Sullivan:

Sorry, I did not realise I was on stage. I thank the Chairman for inviting me to this meeting and for proposing the Bill with Deputy Mattie McGrath.

The position concerning 31 December was taken at my suggestion for a particular and simple reason, namely, that we did not want this transaction to occur and allow significant extra profits to flow back into the banks. The banks have already had their provisions. They set their provisions and satisfied the Central Bank as to the authenticity of their mortgage books. Their provisions were accounted for and tax allowed on them and all the rest of it. It would be unconscionable to allow them to write back multimillion euro profits. The date of 31 December was picked to ensure all the players becoming involved in this process would be honourable and honest in their dealings and subject to independent audit.

If one wishes to move on from that date to the day-to-day evaluation of the value and risk, the number we proposed against a book value of €14 billion was a buy-out price of slightly less than €5 billion. This figure is based on our estimate of the provisioning costs taken on board by the banking industry so that when this transaction took place, there would not be additional or less profit. It would, therefore, be net neutral to both the banks and vulture funds.