Ms Francesca McDonagh:

If the Senator will allow me to broaden the perspective with regard to the bank's resilience, the resilience of businesses - whether SMEs, one-employee companies, or large banks - is particularly relevant in times of uncertainty. There has been a lot of uncertainty as a result of the Brexit situation. Our focus in this time has been to be there for our customers when they are uncertain but also to be ready, as an organisation and institution, to be resilient in respect of whatever outcome to Brexit comes to pass. It is not just about macroprudential rules and one specific proof point. More broadly, it should provide reassurance that our capital resilience and liquidity resilience will be regularly stress-tested from a regulatory perspective. The EBA conducted stress tests in 2018. One was a baseline and one was based on the scenario of a very severe macroeconomic situation arising from a severe downturn. In those stress tests, we demonstrated that we had enough capital reserves to deal with a financial shock. We actually fared better than some of our UK peers. That stress-testing has give some reassurance on the broader question of the resilience of Irish banking, whether in respect of lending to mortgage customers or responding to a broader macroeconomic situation.