Mr. Shane O'Sullivan:

We believe there is credibility in a debt write-off at the end of the process. In our accounts for the first half of the year we charged off at a group level of €121 million. For 2013, the equivalent charge-off figure at group level was €175 million. This write-off at the end of a process is increasing from a low base. I have mentioned that when we appeared before the committee in April, we discussed the concept of providing comfort for people up-front about the shortfall after the sale of a property. We are increasingly rolling this out. We are speaking to 500 customers and giving them a commitment up-front that if they work collaboratively with us to sell the property, we will write off up to 80% of the shortfall once they meet 20% or more of the shortfall.

The numbers involved in personal insolvency cases are also small, but we believe they will grow.

Again, we are open to a debt write-off in the insolvency space because we believe it is a systematic and controlled process and, to date, we have committed to writing off €1.5 million.