Professor Philip Lane:

The way to think about this is that regardless of our commitment as a Central Bank to sell these down at a reasonable speed, subject to financial stability, if one takes it from the fiscal point of view, the question is when we sell these to the NTMA. Currently it can refinance it at super low interest rates. The NTMA is selling that at a very low interest rate. Imagine a scenario where some of this had been delayed for five years and when that transaction took place, the refinancing cost potentially was more expensive than now. The pros and cons on the other side of this transaction-----