Mr. Gerry Mallon:

Typically they happen throughout the year. The way in which the impact of the macro-prudential rules which the Central Bank has put in place, along with funny developing market dynamics in the mortgage market, means that many customers, particularly first-time buyers, look for an exception.

First-time buyers generally require a loan-to-value ratio that is a little higher. They will have gone to a number of banks and those banks will have ended up giving them offers. All of a sudden, we are not sure how these offers are actually going to draw down but we have given the customer a commitment. The consequence has been that the requirement for us in respect of the Central Bank is that we be within our ceiling for the level of exemptions at the end of the year. This year, and this is possibly coming across in many of the banks, people have seen that, because of the number of offers put out, they are not quite sure what is going to draw down and what is not. They have coasted up towards the top of their capability in terms of our capacity to be able to offer exemptions. That means that a number of the banks, including ours, have had to put a little bit of a brake on the exceptions while we wait to see what is in the pipeline and is actually drawn down. Thus, we can be completely sure that we meet our end of year target for the Central Bank.