Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the limited time I have, Minister, can I just lead into the "pro notes", the promissory notes, and the two points I might refer to are Vol. 1, page 3 and then Vol. 1, page 31. Vol. 1, page 3, Minister, is the ... it looks to me like ... it's an EMC memo around ... dated 10 October 2012 around the idea of the pro note. And it speaks about a 40-year Government bond should be acceptable to the ECB as the ECB already accepts 40-year-plus bonds. And then we look for a firm commitment that this long term to be held by ... would be recognised, a special holding would be held to maturity. And then when we come to page 31, it's the actual ... what was put in place. So the two quick questions, I suppose, I want is in terms of negotiations on the pro note, did ... how did it come about that the initial proposal you were looking for, which was a 40-year bond to be held in its entirety for the full duration by the Irish Central Bank to a point where, we'll say, you're holding ... the Central Bank is holding a series of bonds of various durations, whereby the Central Bank is required to sell these on to the open market as soon as possible? And how long, do you think, before all those bonds would have to be discharged onto the open market?