Professor Patrick Honohan:

That is absolutely correct. There is a standard series which has been published for many years - at least 15 - which follows a particular international statistical template. Statisticians are very conservative people. They do not like to change their definitions. We have known for months if not years that this is telling us a certain part of the story and while it is not irrelevant, it is not telling us what most people want to know, namely, what would be the standard variable rate available now if one walked into a bank. I have said this repeatedly and drawn attention to the standard variable rate. The Deputy quotes the figure of 3.47% which is in our publication as the average rate, which includes restructures. In the annexe to the publication, we made sure to include the actual number for new customers, which is 4.51% and not 3.47%. However, 3.47% is not an irrelevant number but is just a number ---