Ms Helen Dooley:

Again, it comes back to the position that we withdrew the tracker rate for all new customers, as did the entire market at the time, because of the dislocation in financial markets and our inability to fund. In hindsight, should we have retained a tracker rate at a very high rate of 10% to 12%? Perhaps, but we did not. We have not manufactured a rate for that period but we have proven through independent analysis and expert opinion that if there had been a tracker rate through that period it would have been higher than the rates that continued to be offered. Therefore the customers have suffered no detriment. The Deputy is correct that the contract must be interpreted or construed in favour of the party that does not draft it, but essentially the point as to what losses the party to the contract has suffered remains the same. It continues to be our view that the customers did not suffer any financial detriment.