Mr. Valdis Dombrovskis:

With respect to the debt–GDP ratio, as I said in my introductory remarks, the debt–GDP statistics have to be taken with a pinch of salt, especially in the case of Ireland. I would not reach the far-reaching conclusions the Senator outlined on public debtper capitabecause we see that countries in the EU that have substantially higher debt–GDP ratios, including debt–GDP ratios that existed prior to Irish GDP recalculation-----