Mr. Seamus Boland:

We have been engaging with a range of actors across the whole social partnership, including all of the political parties, the Government, the Department of Finance and, of course, the Central Bank. We really have been talking to a lot of people. We are very pleased with that engagement so far. We know there is a decision pending. We believe there is a certain expectation for that decision to be positive.

We have always made this point. Historically, the Irish banking system featured the Agricultural Credit Corporation, ACC, and the Industrial Credit Company, ICC. There was always room for that kind of banking in Ireland, even before the crash. There is still room, because the current banking system is very homogenous. In other words, if an applicant is denied a loan in one of the main banks, they will more than likely be refused in another. In Germany during the recession, as the chart in the presentation clearly showed, when people received letters demanding payment they had the choice of going to Sparkassen. Sparkassen took on many customers as a result. Here, mortgage holders had no choice. In fact, the first letter they received was from the vulture capitalist who suddenly had control of their loans. We believe there is very good engagement. There is a positive view from the Government on this, but we await its decision.