Ms Josephine Feehily:

The debt is a moveable feast. It is continually being added to and worked down. We measure the debt on 31 March as at 31 December 2012. That is the debt figure the Comptroller and Auditor General audits. In between, the figures are so volatile that any other figure would be meaningless, for example, P35s are due in. Sometimes they have balances when they come in. If they have balances that means the debt goes up the next day. It is a very volatile process. The sensible thing is to measure it once a year, at a particular date, which shows a trend over time and is consistent. The debt measure we work to is 31 December 2012 measured on 31 March 2013. The debt at that stage was €2,006 million.