Mr. Marco Buti:

I would not subscribe to that statement. I think what we had at the time was already the implementation of the Stability and Growth Pact and the excessive deficit procedure in a pretty lenient manner. Initially, we had given four years instead of one for the correction of the excess deficit. We had the ... from 2013 to 2014 before ... already before the programme was actually agreed ... and, in the context of the programme, 2015 so as the deadline. All this was discussed within the troika. The IMF may have had a preference for a slight less ... slightly lower adjustment, but it was really a marginal one. The issue ... there was not really a difference in terms of the overall correction of the deficit - 2015 was agreed by everybody. I think us, considering the size of the public debt ... the size of the deficit ... the fact that Ireland is a very small, very open economy so fiscal adjustment in a sense it has in macroeconomic terms lower costs than the more closed economy. We thought that in order to regain credibility we would be ... there should be an upfront correction that is ambitious whilst being realistic and reasonable. That's what we applied, and if one looks at what has happened since then in the implementation of the Stability and Growth Pact, I think this position here can be largely supported.