Professor Patrick Honohan:

-----that, oh, you know, do we really have the power. What ... an example of one thing that we don't have the power to do, it seems, according to all the lawyers, that we might want to do, which is close to the area of dividends, is we don't have the power to oblige the banks to change their loan loss provisioning, because that's a matter for their judgment and the approval of their auditors. I think we probably have that implicit power but the lawyers say "No you don't have that power." Now, that's very close to that territory of saying, "Okay, if you're saying that you can't pay dividends, why can we not pay dividends?" "You can't pay dividends 'cause you don't have enough capital." "We do have enough capital, we're showing 15% capital" or whatever number they were ... they were showing. "You shouldn't be showing 15% capital because you haven't made enough loan loss provisions." "Loan loss provisions are a matter for us, not a matter for you, the regulator." So, I believe they did have the power but I suppose there would be some lawyers who say you don't.