Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

The European Commission made us value the loans on two bases when we took them from the banks because it wanted to work out the amount of state aid the banks got. It made us value the loans at a 5% discount rate, which we discussed a few minutes ago, and it also said that any private sector body buying this distressed portfolio in the market would have a discount rate of around 15%. Therefore, if discounted at 15%, one pays only €26 billion. If discounted at 5%, one pays €31.8 billion. Therefore, that is the state aid difference to the banks. I refer to the €5.6 billion, which is based on the different discount rates used. That is basically what the Commission is saying. Nobody but a Government would ever pay €31.8 billion for the loans. If the private sector were prepared to buy the loans, the most it would pay would be €26 billion.