Mr. Gerry Cross:

There are a number of choices to be made. As the scheme will now compensate to a higher level, there will be a cost that needs to be borne somewhere and how that cost is to be distributed needs to be examined. One option would have been to have it borne by the current insurance compensation fund but because of the way in which that fund is levied, the result would have been a direct additional levy on policyholders and so this option was not chosen. With this approach, a MIBI fund has been set up for the additional 35%. This fund will be built up to €150 million in the first instance on the basis of a 2% levy to insurance companies. It is a levy to the insurance companies, which will form part of their cost base. How they manage it is a matter for them. It is different to the ICF levy in that it is levied directly on the premium holder. As I said, in this case the levy will form part of the insurance companies cost base.