Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy said, our national debt is rising significantly but the cost of servicing that debt is actually falling. The average interest rate on our debt is now in the region of 1.6%. The National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, has done a great job of taking maximum advantage of the really favourable borrowing conditions by refinancing our debt where possible and availing of the longest possible maturity profiles in the market. That said, of course the Deputy is right to imply that this cannot be sustained forever. The Minister for Finance and I, along with our colleagues in government, have been upfront about that. We genuinely believe that bringing about economic recovery is the best way to close the deficit. If we can help people to get back to work and keep businesses alive that are really struggling now, that is the best way to rebuild our tax revenues and to reduce expenditure on necessary social supports. That is our objective and that is the way we intend to approach this over the coming years.