Mr. Eddie Casey:

We have an annual publication where we look at the standstill costs of maintaining existing public services. We try to project forward, asking how much it will cost if the same services will be provided as were provided this year and policy did not change, given inflation and changes in demographics. We have a nice breakdown of how much is due to demographics and prices. in our last publication, we were largely in line with the Department, or maybe a bit higher because we had incorporated new census data and figured that demographic growth might be a little faster. We came in line with €600 million rather than the €400 million projected for next year. Most of the differences were where we saw price pressures emerging and trying to provide the same level of service while recognising inflation.