Mr. Brian Hayes:

To be clear in regard to the scheme we were proposing, this particular request that came from the Banking and Insurance Group in Donegal was around trying to bring forward part of the grant which the banks would effectively give up-front on the basis of a guarantee. This particular issue was raised by many people who do not have money and cannot get going with their development. They have no access to money. It was not a loan, per se. It was directly trying to get money up-front to people so that they could start the drawdown process. The reason we chose the guarantee route was to make sure that we did not have to do individual credit assessments on people, as it is not a loan, and also to ensure that a wider group of people who may have their mortgages with credit servicing firms could also access our banks' facility. That is what the request was. The other issue in regard to the deficit in funding that people will or could face and indeed are facing - we met with many people where there is a gap - is a commercial issue for the lenders concerned. However, as to the proposal we made last September, it is still on the table.