Mr. Felix O'Regan:

It was on the issue of loan declines. As both banks have said, they are accepting the vast majority of loan applications, but it is important to note that even where loans are declined by mainstream lenders, there is a system whereby that customer can be referred to Microfinance Ireland. Microfinance Ireland provides loans of up to €25,000 and, as one of my charts showed earlier, €18 million has been lent over the past five years. It is often the case that some of that lending is supplementary to the banks. In other words, the bank may tell the borrower it is not prepared to give him or her 100% of what he or she wants but it will co-fund and co-finance the borrower in conjunction with MFI. That is just a point in support of the bigger picture of banks and non-banks frequently working together in support of the SME borrower.

We have not sold any SME loan to any equity fund. We had one sale of a buy-to-let portfolio, and that comprised debts that were not engaging. To come back to the question on legacy debt, our primary priority for our SME customers, and for all our customers, is viability. We have full documentation on the Internet to help customers understand the journey. Our first request of them is to engage with us and give us full disclosure, and our first priority is to see them back to viability if it is a business. I am speaking specifically about SMEs, and it is the same for personal loans. Our first priority is to get back to viability. We have not had any sale to any equity fund on the SME side. We do everything we can and it is never too late. Even if customers are getting to a point where they have not been engaging and other action has to be taken, at any stage in the process they can come back and re-engage and we will work with them. We have restructured 20,000 SMEs at this point.