Ms Oonagh McPhillips:

That was part of the risk, if you like.

If one looks at the numbers from 2012 to 2021, the highest of those years was 2019, which saw 443 applications. In 2022, that number was 1,316, which was three times the previous highest. That was a concern in the context of the global risk and in the context of our own scheme and our capacity to manage that risk.

What you are trying to do is to balance the objectives. As the Deputy noted, the scheme has had a positive impact. It is about whether that positive impact outweighs the significant risk. That was what we had to assess and our assessment was that it no longer balanced that risk for various public policy reasons. That view was shared by the EU and many of its institutions, including the European Commission, the Financial Action Task Force and the Council of Europe. That assessment was part of the whole.