Mr. Cormac Butler:

It is illegal to repay them because there is no liability. The best comparison I can give is with health insurance. One pays for a premium which protects against something that will happen in the future but, if one already has a health condition and has failed to tell the insurance company, the insurance company cannot be liable for the health condition that one has already suffered. It is the same with the guarantee. The Government gave a guarantee against future losses. It did not give a guarantee against hidden losses and much of the promissory note repayments relate to losses accrued up to 2008. The health condition was already in existence at that time and therefore, when the Government repays the funds, it is not cancelling an existing liability because there is no liability to begin with.