Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The presentation so far has been very interesting. The country has recently experienced a deleveraging by the banks and by citizens, which has a counter-effect on the process. The witnesses mentioned how cash and currency can be created. We are seeing the opposite effect in the economy with regard to that. I have a question on the Irish banks. Are they soaking up this quantitative easing to improve their own balance sheets? Are they also soaking up the interest rate? One of the big controversies we have had here is obviously the representatives of the banks coming in and telling us about their interest rates. They tell us that their interest rates are not fully reflective of the component with regard to the cheaper interest rates as a result of quantitative easing because that has been late in the timeline of the debt.