Mr. Ed Sibley:

It is slow, to be frank about it. There are a number of issues here such as the scale of individual credit unions and the capacity of the credit unions to move their business models with any kind of scale. I think there are potential opportunities for more of a shared services model within the credit union sector. Some individual credit unions are proving very successful in growing their loan books, but in aggregate across the system not so much. It is important also to think about the technology changes we are living through and which are, to my mind, accelerating, not just from a mortgage market perspective. I refer to the likes of Revolut and other payment service providers, the potential for peer-to-peer and so on. I think that will continue to shake up the industry here. I have had a number of engagements with the likes of Irish Rural Link. I met representatives of the Sparkassen when I was in the UK. I was responsible for the supervision of the Landesbanken, which are connected with the Sparkassen, so I am familiar enough with that business model. Ultimately, it requires investment for a public bank to operate in Ireland, but that would be subject to the same criteria as for any bank looking to be authorised in Ireland. Ultimately, banking licences are the responsibility of the ECB, but we would have a role to play. It comes down to someone putting in the money behind it.