Mr. Gavin Kelly:

The Deputy has touched on a number of important issues. We did some research on financial well-being using some international benchmarks. When people undergo a financial health check and look at their financial circumstances, they come out with a score. The score puts them into a category. The categories are struggling, stretched, managing or thriving. Our research shows that about 40% of the population are in the struggling category. These are people who struggle day to day, or from pay cheque to pay cheque, to manage their finances. They do not think about things like savings, the impact of loans on their ability to borrow or planning for the future. When one moves up the categories into stretched, people have a bit more breathing space. They are thinking about saving but crucially, are not doing it. People in the managing category have surplus income on a monthly basis, understand that they need to save, start putting some money away but do not necessarily plan for the future. We know from other research that only 50% of the Irish population has a pension plan, for example. People in the thriving category are planning for their future. They are thinking about their long-term future, rainy day savings and so on.

What we are trying to do is build awareness. We see this in other aspects of life, where people look at their physical well-being for example. We believe that financial well-being is a crucial part of one's overall well-being. What we are trying to do is build awareness. We launched our health check service and within two weeks, 20,000 people had undergone the check. People can attend one of our seminars or come into the bank for a needs review with an adviser. They do not have to be a customer of Bank of Ireland to do this. They can go online, check it out and get a sense of where they stand. That is what is really important. The points the Deputy made about younger people saving for a mortgage and proving their repayment capacity are crucial.

Another issue that is very interesting and about which there is a lot of debate is the rental market and the cost of rent versus a mortgage. This raises issues like the amount of disposable income going on rent that could be going into savings. This is about helping customers to plan and save as they go forward. In the past few years I have noticed that our clients and customers have become much more serious and resilient in this regard. They are more aware of the issues and are planning and saving. The days of going off at the weekend and buying a house are long gone. People are now really planning out their future and are being very serious about that planning. There is also an increased awareness among many of our younger customers that it is not a good idea to take on too much debt. They consider the impact of car loans and other debts. It is important for people to look at their finances in the round and to plan ahead, whether those plans involve buying a house, going on a holiday or securing their long-term future. There are tools and services available that can help customers to plan ahead. This is a really important part of what we are trying to do as an organisation.