Mr. Antoine Mac Donncha:

I will address both aspects of the question sequentially. The first element the Deputy asked about is whether people should be notified of the legislation. As matters stand, the Government has not decided to bring the legislation forward but it is something we anticipate it will do. If the decision is made – I am not trying to prejudge the Government but it is my expectation that it is likely to happen - then the legislation will be published and there will be an opportunity to engage with people before the legislation is ultimately debated and finalised in the Oireachtas. The Oireachtas has every prerogative to change, amend or reject the legislation as it sees fit.

In terms of the second element where Deputy Boyd Barrett is talking about the existing building societies legislation permitting transfer of engagements only to another building society and the different regime that applies to building societies, it is correct to say that in general building societies were, for example, mutual organisations and the profit that would accrue would eventually go back to members. That is not the case any longer in terms of ICS because although it is a building society there is no economic ownership in the society by its members in the way that would have been the case in the past and as was traditionally the case with building societies. Effectively, the transfer from ICS to a bank is not the same as would have been the case if one was transferring from a traditional building society to a bank. One is really moving from like to like.