Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is not information that is normally published but it gives a fuller and more accurate picture of the interest charged on the national debt and this committee will put that information out there today, having received it from the NTMA following specific queries from the committee. It is good to put that out there. It will take quite a while for some of that older debt to work its way through the system. The other side of it is that the banks probably have cash reserves , possibly of €20 billion or €30 billion, on which they are gaining very little interest on. There is a balance to be achieved between how much they should hold at a low rate versus some of the older debt. They manage it as best they can but it is not as simple as some people think.