Mr. John O'Connell:

I acknowledge the Chairman's remarks regarding the committee's intent and I welcome them. Any entity operating within the State that is invited to an Oireachtas committee should attend. I also welcome what he said about the Central Bank because of the seriousness of what we are dealing with, namely, the lives of 3,000 staff members and their families and more than 1 million customers. We met the Minister for Finance yesterday and had a very productive discussion. He shares all the concerns of colleagues here today. We went through our point of view, as we are doing today, outlining the concerns and the urgency around this. We seek that the Minister makes known to his counterpart in the UK an absolute opposition to any suggestion that vulture funds be involved in anything to do with the Ulster Bank situation. Equally, he should make clear to NatWest that it needs to commit to the future of Ulster Bank, which has been in existence for 200 years. It must commit to the future of Ulster Bank and engage on what is required to have a sustainable bank, which we believe it is, in the Republic of Ireland.