Mr. Bernard Sheridan:

We approve the charge under section 149. The banks themselves then decide whether to apply that to all customers. They may decide to exempt certain people. For example, a number of banks are still exempting people over the age of 60, or students. That is their decision; the Central Bank does not impose it upon them. We use profiles when assessing the bank charges. One of the profiles is a person who is using the banks in a traditional way and is relying upon them in the traditional way. We take that into account and we try to ensure that the proposed increase is limited for that type of customer. We also need to balance this with the banks' need to recover the costs. In terms of the criteria and applying the criteria of minimum amounts in the account, that is essentially the banks' decision. Obviously it has implications for customers as to whether they are really getting free banking in that scenario - in a sense they are not. That is another way of imposing the charge.