Ms Francesca McDonagh:

To respond to the Deputy's questions on Davy, there has been a lot of media speculation about our reported interest. I will not respond to media speculation. It is speculative at this stage; we know the decision by the board of Davy to initiate a sales process. That is starting and the announcement is days old. More generically, we look on a regular basis at opportunities to acquire businesses if they would add commercially and strategically to the value of the Bank of Ireland franchise, and this is true for any institution whether in Ireland or beyond. This is a fairly generic statement. It is not appropriate for me to respond to what could happen to the existing shareholders of Davy.

The Deputy spoke about culture. I cannot opine on the culture of an institution of which I am not part. For our own culture, I made a priority with my team to transform the culture at Bank of Ireland. We have made significant changes. We still have more to do and this is an ongoing piece of work but we have gone from being significantly below global financial services benchmarks, for example for cultural embedding, to now being at or above these benchmarks. I have already said that culture is not some sort of soft happy clappy motherhood and apple pie poster in a staff canteen, when we used to go to staff canteens. It is commercial. It is about ensuring the sustainability of a business model, customer loyalty, effective outcomes, regulatory compliance and, ultimately, a long-term sustainable profitable business. I have said this in the context of Bank of Ireland. I am a firm believer in the type of transformation we are undergoing.