Mr. Eoin Dorgan:

It has made a very conscious policy decision over the past four or five years to lock in rates, which have largely remained pretty much at the same level for the last three or four years. It is illustrative of where the state and the wider market sees interest rates as at an all-time low. The research to which Mr. Tobin referred seeks to bring to public attention that people need to make individual decisions to protect themselves from changes in interest rates.

On the banks and safety deposit boxes, essentially this issue arose during our appearance with officials of the Department of Community and Rural Development at the Joint Committee on Community and Rural Development.