Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have some final questions. I refer to page 12 of the information notes the witnesses submitted. Representatives from the Department of Finance were before the committee a while ago. People think the country is fine - and it is - but we forget about the debt. It does not cross people's kitchen table, so to speak, and they do not think about it. However, as a person from the Department of Finance stated, people in Ireland are the most heavily indebted people in the world, next to Japan, when the State debt and the personal debt are added. That is nothing to do with the witnesses but to go back to the topic I mentioned earlier, looking at the chart on page 12, which is headed "FUNDING AND DEBT MANAGEMENT", the figure for gross Government debt to gross Government revenue, and Mr. O'Kelly signalled this at the outset, is 264.2%. It is the fourth highest next to Greece, Portugal and Italy. We are the fourth highest in that category, which he said is a worrying figure. He also mentioned the figure on the right of the chart for gross Government interest to gross Government revenue and 7.6% of total revenue goes on paying interest. That figure is only below those for Portugal, Italy and Cyprus.