Mr. John McCarthy:

I will give two examples. Ireland went in with a debt ratio of 15%, in net terms, of GDP. The Deputy is quite right to say GDP because we did not have these distortions then. The headline figure was 25% but we had 10% of GDP in the National Pensions Reserve Fund at the time. We went in with a low debt ratio, but our outcome was horrendous. Consider Italy, for example, which went in with a high debt. On foot of that Italy has had to be very restrictive in its fiscal policies. It can do nothing. The Italian GDP is still below its pre-crisis level. Its debt ratio is now 130% of GDP. This is because it did not have the fiscal buffers to smooth the shock. Estonia and Luxembourg, however, had no problems accessing markets because they had debt ratios of 10% to 15%. They were still able to borrow, in some cases at negative interest rates. Their GDP did not suffer as much as countries that went in with a high debt ratio.