Mr. Jim O'Keeffe:

By definition, therefore, if there were eight repossessions, each one of them, because of the value of the property, would most likely not come into the 90% write-off because it is unlikely that those eight properties had got down to less than 10% value. To respond to the Senator's wider question, which is that if those eight repossessions had taken place, and if there was a residual debt and we were then talking about the write-off of the residual debt or, as Deputy Durkan referred to it, the uncollectable debt, there is every possibility that this was either fully written down or certainly written down to a very small residual. I expect that if we just think about the circumstances in which those households found themselves, if they were not able to repay the debt. In some cases it is not a very arduous process. They may have worked with the bank even for that repossession because of the nature of some of the legal issues people face. Therefore, when I say there were eight, they took that shape. I expect that it is very likely that the residual debt was completely written off. I do not think that would be an unreasonable position to take on it.