Professor Philip Lane:

Again, in a situation where Government debt can be issued very cheaply at the moment, the long-term pros and cons of that from a fiscal point of view, which is not part of the way the Central Bank can think about it given the separation between the fiscal and the monetary, is an open question. The minimum schedule at that time was very important insurance, as in early 2013 it was not obvious how the Irish economy would recover. The fact that at that point an assurance was given that there would be no inevitable acceleration or graph of disposal was very important in terms of providing a fail-safe for the situation. The fact that it turns out that the recovery has been better and the financial conditions are easier has allowed a more normal speed of disposal to take place. That is what we are doing.

We still bear in mind that we do not want to overburden the sovereign debt market, so it is not instantaneous. That is a path we are treading. We want to respect the temporary nature of this funding but we do not want to go too quickly where that would overburden the sovereign debt market and cause financial instability. From the Oireachtas point of view and a fiscal point of view, it is very important to recognise that this was always going to be refunded or refinanced at some point, and given the low interest rates available now, maybe that would not be true in the future.