Mr. John O'Connell:

Yes. We put that to them and we believe it is necessary. We have already had a change in exit dates. KBC announced a three-month window which has now gone up to six months and Ulster Bank announced that it branch network would close earlier and now it has extended that again. If you look at it, it is extraordinary that KBC's extension brings it further into 2023 than the larger Ulster Bank. KBC has 12 branches and Ulster Bank has 88. As I understand from KBC's presentation last week, it is talking about an August exit and Ulster Bank is talking about a March exit. If that is not a recipe for chaos, I do not know what is.

This can work, and we want it to work. We have being saying publicly since January how it can work, but we are looking for engagement with the other key stakeholders, including the banks, the regulator and the Department, to pull together a comprehensive plan that customers, in the first instance, and, just as importantly, staff can get behind and agree on. There is no certainty and nobody knows what the next date will be. We think a realistic date is the end of 2023 and we can work towards that.