Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent)
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I am setting a scene. We are now fast forwarding five and a half years because that was the court of directors then, and this is the court of directors now. This is key for today's setting and conversation because we can all get lost in the micro-management of the balance sheets, funding and arrears and so on. On page 62 of Mr. Boucher's submission today, look at the court of directors at the top of that pyramid and see what their key responsibilities are. I am suggesting that Mr. Boucher should have had the governor and a couple of non-executive directors here with him today. I am going to go through them with him and ask him to see the point that is being made.

On top of the risk pyramid of a €125 billion or €130 billion balance sheet, the board has the ultimate oversight and accountability for the risk and related control environment in the group. It is responsible for reviewing and approving risk appetites, risk framework and policies. All the detail in here this afternoon has been about the execution of those policies. Mr. Boucher has hesitated and ultimately refused to answer Deputy Doherty's question as to whether there are no write-offs in cases where the loan had originally been secured but the security is insufficient. The loan has had full examination and stretching in order to be repaid by the customer and there are no write-offs. That is a credit policy.

We will go through the members of the court of directors. Governor Archie Kane has been a year and a half in the Bank of Ireland and he comes from England, from Lloyd's Bank. Kent Atkinson, director number two, comes from England again, and has also been at Lloyd's. Mr. Boucher himself is the longest-serving member of the court at seven and a half years. Next is Pat Butler, who has previously worked mainly with McKinsey and abroad, and has been on the court of directors for two years. There is only one lady and she is English. I would say that there are very few Irish experienced people on that board in terms of understanding the effects on the people of Ireland of all the bank's algebra and accountancy.

I will go back to that day in March 2009, when Bank of Ireland got €3.5 billion of preference share injections to keep the group alive. That was the right thing to do. But it is not acceptable to be insensitive to the customers of the bank. In Ireland we have €20 billion or so in mortgage loans on residences. How many thousand loans are in that? Is it ninety-something thousand?