Mr. Donal McNally:

Well, it wasn't dismissed as much in ... it was not accepted by the Government because we had one of the fastest-growing economies, we had very good competitiveness, we had recorded a surplus of 4% in 2000 and we were projecting one for 2001 and it was felt that, you know, we were the best pupil in the class and were being unfairly picked out for this piece of advice, which was a formal recommendation. I mean, there could've been other ways of dealing with it rather than - as, perhaps, we thought - trying to make some sort of example of us. So, you know, we didn't feel it was a justified ... especially when other countries were struggling to make the 3% deficit and were using a lot of one-off measures to comply with the Stability and Growth Pact.