Mr. Charlie McCreevy:

Well, we didn't actually know at the time whether it would be half a billion, a billion, €2.5 billion or €3.5 billion; it depended on the uptake. That was the ... at the time. And we ... I answered repeated questions in the Dáil and said is that ... I didn't know what the uptake was going to be, but I hoped it was going to be the maximum amount possible. In the end of the day, the first few months with ... many people didn't apply. And, as usual, in Ireland, other places probably as well, everybody registered in the last two months or so. If I remember correctly, there was about 1.17 million people originally signed up for it. And, I think over the period of the five years, maybe 70,000 dropped off, or thereabouts. I ... the scheme was ... it was an incentive scheme to get people to come back and save in very, very good times, the same as the State had been saving in the good times. I'd been reducing the budget ... the overall national debt to a figure in the 30s, I set up the pension reserve fund, and ... so we were saving on behalf of the State, so, therefore, I think it was important ... people were getting used to all this money in their pockets and I decided that we'd have an incentive scheme to encourage people to save. By the way, if you want to talk about counter-cyclical policies, Chairman, actually, that was a counter-cyclical policy because it took the order ... it must have taken in the order, over the five years ... if it cost €2.5 billion, it must have taken in the order of €10 or €11 billion out of the economy over the five years. So, therefore, I rest my case. By the way-----