Mr. Cormac Butler:

That is a good question and there is no concrete answer. Some are alleging that they are being put under pressure by the ECB to sell the loans. There is also a widely held view that vulture funds will act in a more efficient manner than commercial banks although there is no evidence to support that. We do know that the ECB is telling the banks that if they sell loans to vulture funds, they can delay the recognition of losses on those loans as far as it is concerned. In other words, they can bury the losses into reserves so that, in some cases, they can record an accounting profit even though they have made a loss. If one is worried about the sale of assets to vulture funds, there is a potential defence that one can use here. If a State-owned bank is selling an asset to a vulture fund and that bank is giving a subsidy, then the Government is entitled to know that subsidy. In that way, it can make an informed decision as to whether the vulture fund route is the correct one.