Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Can I ask a different question? Two, one, zero and minus one are numbers. I am asking a completely different question. If one wants to get real money moving in the economy to stimulate economic activity, if the ECB set a negative interest rate of minus one percent, people who lodged €100 would be told that if it is left on deposit, it will only be worth €99 this time next year. That would force money out into the real economy rather than have it sitting in banks. Would that not be another way of moving money into the real economy rather than people putting it into safe assets? I am talking about a negative interest rate.