Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It would be very helpful - I understand this will happen soon - for us to come up with a more appropriate measurement for our national income that can strip out some of the big changes that can happen quarterly and yearly. The CSO is working on that and I believe it will offer such an assessment quite soon. Any call the CSO makes on that is up to it.

The level of debt is broadly in line with the figures I have given the committee. Depending on the year under consideration it will be between €200 billion and €205 billion. It is a very high figure, but it is reducing as a percentage of our national income.