Mr. Frank O'Connor:

There is a chart that shows our ratings and perhaps it is a good summary of it.

Ireland was a triple A country and debt to GDP was approximately 25% in the early part of the decade. Of course, with the financial crisis, the market called into question Ireland's ability to fund. Our ten-year bond yields went to 14%, and those were unsustainable rates, hence the programme of assistance as Ireland got its fiscal position back under control and then the gradual reduction in the deficit and the return to budget balance. We were very much in that space and locked out of markets but, fortunately, with help from the troika programme, we were able to stabilise the situation. Yes, for a little while, when we went to meet the investors, we were perhaps put down to the end of the corridor, with high-yield debt, but very quickly Ireland re-established its credibility and we are very much back into the semi-core space. It took a while, probably until the middle part of the decade, as we got closer to France and Belgium, but that is exactly where we are. People do not bring up other peripheral countries in the context of Ireland.