Mr. Richie Boucher:

The margin is not necessarily based on it because we have a liquidity risk with mortgages. A mortgage is a 20 to 25-year instrument and we take liquidity risk in the provision of mortgages. We look at those as they operate elsewhere. Yesterday the Irish Government, which is, in effect, the base risk-free investment, issued a 15-year bond at just under 2.5%. Our fixed rate offering is 4.99% and that is a 2.5% margin. For our margin, and, in particular, for our capital allocation models and the capital allocation the Central Bank requires to hold against our different books, we must take into consideration our loss experience. Our loss experience on our Irish mortgage books has been different from what it has been in Europe. Another comparator I would note is that we have a business in the UK and our mortgage business in the UK is roughly the same size as our Irish mortgage business. It is a very similar type of market structure and I will return to why that is the case. The spreads and margins in the UK in which we operate are the same.
Some reference has been made to a comparison between Irish rates and European rates. A couple of features I would note in that respect is that the loss experience is different, so the capital allocation is different. However, a very significant feature of a number of the European markets is tax-based subsidies for bond markets. An example is the Pfandbriefe market in Germany where banks operate as originators and issuers and they sell their mortgages on to bond markets. If we take into account that there is tax-based or taxpayers' subsidy for those bond markets, it is not comparable. The more comparable market in terms of market structure and access to bond markets is the UK market against the Irish market.