Mr. Andrew Blair:

The nature of the customers who were moved to the GRG was that they were typically persons who had missed either interest or capital payments. Others were in earlier stages of distress who would have breached convenants or undertakings they had made in respect of their financial performance or other terms and conditions of loan agreements. We were not moving customers who were in the category of doing everything expected of them within the confines of the contractual arrangements we had made with them. They were customers who had missed payments, of interest or capital, or who had breached loan covenants and needed attention. The intent, when we moved them to the GRG, was to try to give them the support they needed to survive. One could argue that it extended from the outset of the economic crisis in 2008 to 2015 before businesses began to see real recovery, probably in Dublin in the first place. I am sure others know outlying areas of the country much better than I do and who will say parts of the country have still not recovered from a business viability perspective. I understand people who run businesses have put their life, soul and blood into them and want to keep them alive, but there comes a time when any financial institution - Ulster Bank in this case - will need to make a decision on the future of these businesses and bring certainty to the situation. That uncertainty wears on the customers concerned and also on the bank. I am respectful of the fact that people want to keep their businesses alive, but it cannot be forever when circumstances are very difficult.