Mr. Kieran Wallace:

The Deputy cut me off a while ago when I was trying to start to explain that issue. In the opening statement we alluded to a number of issues which we have taken into account following independent advice on whether we would be in a position to allow mortgage holders to bid on their loans. Even if we decided to go down that road, there are two practical issues, parking all the other issues that have come into our decision-making process, as to whether we could contemplate individual mortgage holders bidding for their own loans.

First, across the entire portfolio of IBRC loans we have, less than 0.2% of the total of borrowers have had the opportunity to bid for their own loans. They have bid for their own loans in a very competitive environment, allowing other qualified bidders in to bid for those loans at the same time. We have had no examples right across any book - nor will we have any examples - where individual borrowers will be the only party bidding for their loan because that does not allow Mr. Richardson and me to fulfil our duty of getting - and standing over getting - best price.

Second, even if we got down to the point of allowing individual borrowers to bid for their own loans, parking everything else to one side, we would have a range of practical issues to deal with. Let us consider the hypothetical case of Mr. and Mrs. Murphy with their home on a particular road in a particular suburb of Dublin. All the information would then be available to anybody who actually qualifies as a qualified bidder - it is not that difficult to qualify as such. They would be able to go in and look at all of the information regarding Mr. and Mrs. Murphy's home, their payment records, the amount of the mortgage, the level of their arrears, when they stopped paying and all of the details around their mortgage. We believe an incredible range of practical difficulties would arise even if we got to the point of getting the advice indicating it is practical to allow individual mortgage holders to bid for their own loans.