Mr. Seamus Coffey:

Yes, the medium-term objective of a balanced budget has been achieved in structural terms, but we must understand the huge tailwinds that have been behind the public finances in helping to achieve it such as the reduced interest costs and the strong cyclical recovery. We talk about corporation tax, but income tax, value added tax, VAT, and pay-related social insurance, PRSI, receipts continue to perform strongly, most notably PRSI. Of course, the achievement of the medium-term objective is being helped greatly by the corporation tax receipts. If we were to adjust for some of the excess we see here, the achievement of the medium-term objective might not look as solid as it does in the overall headline figure. It has been achieved, but there are significant risks behind it.