Dr. Colin Hunt:

I described them as exceptional on our interim results day at the end of July. A like-for-like comparison between the first six months of last year and the same period last year is difficult because we had not seen any increases in interest rates, nor had we seen the migration of those loans from Ulster Bank and KBC. What we have said is it is likely our return on tangible equity, which is a key measure of our performance, will tip above 20% this year. Our medium-term target has been that that would be above 13% throughout the cycle. As recently as 2020, we lost €700 million. This is a business that is very cyclical. It does well when the economy does well and it does poorly when the economy does poorly. One of my driving motivations as CEO of AIB is to reduce the cyclical impact banks have traditionally had on the economy. We have to be there in bad times to be able to support our customers. The profitability we are generating now is building a capital base that will ensure when we have downturns - and there will be downturns in the future - the bank has the ability to absorb future losses and to support our customers through good times and bad.