Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Mr. McCarthy mentioned in regard to the 4.7% that the bulk of it was comprised of growth in domestic demand as opposed to the healthy exports which are clearly there. Therefore, the domestic economy's recovery is more relevant than the export market to the improvement in domestic demand. In relation to our eurozone partners and their impact on our growth, to what extent do you feel that the improvement in domestic demand may be to some extent due to the success of lowering of the European Central Bank rates, given that, for the sake of argument, 75% of our mortgage market is tracker-based. To what extent are people feeling the benefit of the greater bang to the buck in their pocket? Rather than being a negative, it has to some extent been a positive for us in this economy.