Ms Marie Hunt:

In simple terms, no, because we have access to data for everywhere across Europe and right throughout that period, we would have seen that typically, 25% to 30% of investment in any jurisdiction came from outside. In the case of Ireland, there were probably several reasons for this, the main one being that many investors simply deemed Ireland to be too small, that the size of opportunities that were brought to the market were quite small. In the current market, we have lots of portfolios changing hands that are sizeable and this is attractive to investors.

At that time, however, we were selling individual assets and they were just deemed to be too small.

We also had a much higher stamp duty regime in Ireland. For example, one could have invested in the United Kingdom and paid a stamp duty rate of 4% relative to 9% that had prevailed in Ireland, so that was off-putting. Also, pricing was more expensive so if we looked at yields or cap rates relative to other jurisdictions, Dublin stood out because it was more expensive so obviously investors were not going to invest on that basis.