Mr. Eamonn Crowley:

There are two aspects to the market. There is the business banking market, which is dominated by the two main banks.

It is an area where we are trying to provide alternative funding and targeted financing for business. I cannot go into the specific detail, but an element of our negotiations with Ulster Bank concerns aspects of its business book. We want to provide more competition in that area.

Turning to the mortgage side, I believe there is plenty of competition in this area. The market shares of the two main banks have been staying stable, or falling in some cases, in recent years. Our market share, for instance, has been increasing, as has that of others, such as the non-bank lenders. Therefore, it is quite a competitive market and there is a lot of information for customers. We must compete like everybody else in that respect. Naturally, there has been some comment, particularly arising from the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland, BPFI, report in February, regarding the level of capital required by banks to support mortgage lending. It highlights the competitive nature of how interest rates and costs are driven in respect of banks making a return. I believe there will be more debate on this aspect in due course. However, the retail area of banking is very competitive, no company has it its own way and market shares in recent years show that it is not a one-way bet. It is necessary to work hard for every mortgage and work with all customers in a proactive way to get them from application to draw down and, ultimately, to get them keys to their own homes. We have been doing that for many years, and we want to continue to do that to provide competition.