Mr. Eamonn Crowley:

We have a common equity tier 1 ratio of 15.6%. That is a capital ratio which has increased during the crisis last year because of our management of our balance sheet, ensuring that we are keeping the bank in a safe place, and because of the management of the capital in recent years. We have some headroom in our capital base but that is subject to discussion with the Central Bank because it sets the capital requirements for the organisation on an annual basis. We have some headroom in that number and we are at a safe place today. The acquisition of any book would require some additional capital and that can come in lots of different formats, not just by way of capital injection. It can also come by way of discount on loan purchases and there are other ways it can be created but I cannot go into any detail. Therefore, any speculation on requiring support from shareholders includes all shareholders, not just our 75% of shareholders. We have 25% external minority shareholders who have also expressed interest in our transaction and expressed support for it. If we needed capital, we would have to access it from all shareholders, not just from our main shareholder but we are not at that level yet.

On transfer of business, it is fair to say that the acquisition of or transfer of a loan book would have TUPE legislation attaching to it. That is clear in our discussions.

On branches, I said publicly when I announced our interest in the Ulster Bank franchise that this included our interest in branches that Ulster Bank has, particularly in areas where we do not have the same level of coverage. We believe that those branches will complement our 76 branches across the country. There is a complementary aspect to the Ulster Bank franchise, which we believe will add to our bank, our scale size and our branch locations.