Mr. Seán Quigley:

Not just during the period of the financial crisis, but on an ongoing basis we review all our strategies. Last night I looked at the financial statements for that period. The investment committee met nine or ten times during that year. There was very proactive review. We need to realise that the collapse in the financial markets happened very quickly. Very few, if any, people anticipated the financial crash to the extent that it happened. Once the markets were down, we had a choice to make as to whether to stick with that. We effectively did that and the recovery has been quite good. The alternative would have been to get out and put it into cash, and cash has been delivering a very poor performance.

We made one change shortly after the financial crisis, which was consistent with reviewing our strategies. For people who had money in growth funds, we decided to hold a small portion in cash. None of us wants to be selling funds or units when the markets are down. The reality is that very few funds had that experience. The natural reaction during a crisis as significant as the financial crisis - the worst since the Great Depression - is to become slightly more risk-averse. That is what we did. It will always be a judgment call at a point in time. The cash we are holding is not generating any return; in fact in line with the ECB monetary policy it is generating a negative return. If that money had been left in the growth fund it would be worth considerably more. It is judgments at points of time. There is no absolute right answer to any of this.