As the Deputy will be aware, a key component of the Financial Measures Programme is the establishment of deleveraging plans to reduce the Irish banking system to an appropriate size and to stabilise its funding base. The Central Bank has agreed with the troika that a sustainable Loan to Deposit Ratio for the aggregate domestic banking system is 122.5%. As a first step in the Financial Measures Programme process, banks were instructed to segregate their loan assets strategically into core and non-core portfolios. The key principle governing the definition of core portfolios was the need to service the retail, SME and corporate banking requirements of the Irish economy, including cross-border trade and investment, acknowledging that some limited element of international business remains essential. In doing so, the banks needed to ensure that at the end of the process a viable core bank, independent of direct or indirect State support and capable of returning to the capital markets in the medium term, would remain. To this end, separate Non-core teams have been established by each of the banks to focus on managing the deleveraging process. AIB's Non-core team continues to manage AIB's deleveraging as required under the Financial Measures Programme.
AIB is in the process of agreeing its Restructuring Plan with the European Commission. Once that process has concluded compliance with its commitments will be monitored by a Monitoring Trustee approved by the Commission. My understanding is that the Restructuring Plan will not prescribe a particular method or structure of sale. Normally a bank retains the ability to conduct deleveraging using the most appropriate structure for that transaction, in order to obtain a competitive price whilst satisfying any further requirements under its Restructuring Plan. I have been informed by AIB that for material disposals, it often uses the services of agents in the marketing and sales process if it believes this will ensure the price achieved on disposal of assets is maximised.