Mr. Peter Boland:

It depends on how one defines the risk. If the risk is for thatched cottages or, as we are starting to see now, the risk is for thatched cottages with stoves, then you are never going to make a profit as it stands because the population of them is too small. That has been outlined already by Insurance Ireland. If the risk is housing in Ireland, then that clearly presents the opportunity to make a substantial profit, as it currently does. You can pick a market to suit your argument but, effectively, if the appetite were there, it could be done.

The second thing I would say is that Quinn Insurance was brought up, as it often is, as a stick to beat us with. Again, it must be remembered that Quinn Insurance did not go out of business because of any inherent failing of the insurance market in Ireland. There were other external issues involved in that, so it cannot be used as an example of how delicate the Irish insurance market is.