Mr. Padraic Kissane:

In order to prevent the market being cornered, they got in within six or eight months. The margins for the Bank of Scotland were 1.75% and 1.5% but the margin race to the bottom began with Danske Bank. Danske Bank was a niche player and did not have the volume of other banks. Professionals with large loans had access to rates of 0.5%, 0.6%, 0.4%, or 0.77% and at worst, they had a negotiating position whereby they could tell their original lender to match it or they would be gone. When I said this to a reporter from Denmark the reporter was astonished but I did not say it lightly. October 2006 is a key date for what went on and it has caused all the issues since, such as the margins being taken out of loan offers by Permanent TSB. The first time I brought up the issue with two senior managers at Permanent TSB they told me they did not take the margins out until 2008 because of the market crisis. I told them they took them out in 2006, put them back in, took them out again in 2007, put them in back in again and took them out again later in 2007. This was all because of the move by Danske Bank.