Mr. Antoine Mac Donncha:

When departmental officials appeared before this committee several weeks ago, we noted that we were exploring legislation to address that issue in the broader sense across the system. It cannot be ruled out that an unregulated financial service provider might ultimately try to acquire these assets. That is not something we are aware is likely to happen but clearly it is not impossible and the statutory scheme would not necessarily preclude it. However, it is worth bearing in mind that the purpose of including in the restructuring plan the requirement to sell assets on is to encourage competition in that sector of the market. For somebody to participate properly and compete in that sector of the market, authorisations would be required. I suggest the Commission would be unlikely to approve a sale to somebody who was seeking to acquire these mortgages simply to extract value from them and who was not operating actively in the market to generate business. It is much less likely in this instance that the assets would travel to an unregulated provider but clearly it cannot be ruled out.