Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

One of the things worth bearing in mind and which Mr. Dempsey mentioned is the variation. The figure is an estimate. Part of the reason it has gone up by €400 million is that there has been a change in the rate of return included in the actuarial assessment from 3% to 1%. Effectively, we are back to the discount rate being applied to actuarial assumptions. It is the same argument in pension liabilities being estimated. There can be a lot of fluctuations, depending on the assumptions used. Part of the concern is that if one were to make provision for all of these things, there would be major jumps from year to year that could be very significant. Even in an account as big as the HSE's, it can distort the financial performance in the year. That is the argument against it.