Ms Francesca McDonagh:

We have increased our share of the mortgage market. We have done that by being competitive in terms of our servicing. We have not changed our pricing structure. I know we can have a discussion about mortgage prices in Ireland but we have not reduced or changed our pricing. We have increased our market share because we have worked with brokers and improved our turnaround times. We now have over 50% of first-time buyers who get end-to-end approval and drawdown on their mortgage digitally. Those sorts of service initiatives are central to our business model.

In terms of excluding customers for any particular reason, we look at customers on a case-by-case basis. It is not in the interests of anyone, either the customer, the bank, the State or the economy, to have banks provide mortgages that are not sustainable for individuals who then find themselves in financial distress. We want to make sure that a mortgage is sustainable for the life term of the mortgage.

In terms of total lending, we lent a total of €5.3 billion in retail Ireland in 2020. That covers mortgages and SME and personal lending. Of that, €2.1 billion was in Irish mortgages and those are part of our 2020 annual report. I do not have the number in terms of volume but that is an example and a very clear data point, with a 2% increase in market share during that period, showing our commitment to support homebuilding and home buying in Ireland.