Ms Francesca McDonagh:

The Deputy made the point about account numbers. Many customers will choose to split their mortgage. They may take out a mortgage that is two thirds fixed, because they want that certainty, and one third variable, because they want the flexibility to make additional payments or they are confident that they can pay it off in a shorter term. That is customer choice. Choice comes out of competition and competitive markets result in different choice and differentiation in terms of products. The 4.5% to which the Deputy refers is only in the 80% to 90% loan to value bracket. Customers below 50% LTV will be on a 3.9% rate. As I said, we write to customers. We go beyond the minimum requirement and go the extra mile to let customers know that they can avail of a very attractive fixed rate. We have marketing campaigns. We recently reset our brand in the market and we have some very active campaigning about our lowest ever rate of 2.9%. With the cash-back, which our customers like, we feel we have been very active, transparent and engaged with our customer base. Someone who walks into any one of our 250 branches will see marketing materials and campaigns. As a significant part of colleague growth, we have created new roles are in the front line. We have put over 200 people in the front line and any of them will be able to talk about our mortgage pricing. We are being proactive, responsive, transparent and competitive in our fixed rate pricing. That is the area in which we compete and we certainly encourage any customer on a variable rate, whether they are with Bank of Ireland or a competitor, to have a conversation with us about what we think is a very compelling product.