Mr. John Hogan:

I will start and then hand over to Mr. McCarthy. Early in the session I referred to our annual debt report, which is a very useful document, which is almost a handbook. on the national debt, exposure and what it means in terms of our own public finances and so on. Over the past number of years, there has been significant reprofiling and elongating of our debt. Associated with that, by virtue of benefiting from the lower-interest-rate environment, there has been the material impact on the cost of servicing the debt. As we look into the near and middle term, we are generally well placed to deal with the issues that are now arising, but, as we have stated in our own public documents over the past number of years, the very benign environment that has been operating internationally on bond yields, very much driven by central bank action, is beginning to come to an end. We have seen a movement on interest rates in the US, of which I am sure the Deputy will be very much aware.

In the European context, the ECB has already indicated some of the policy actions it intends to take over the coming while. They are very much linked to the winding down of asset programmes that have been instrumental in terms of the moderation of the international lending environment. However, what might have been described as an era of free or more-than-free money is very much coming to an end. We have been mindful of it. We have been indicating it in our documentation over recent years and have been planning accordingly. Mr. McCarthy had a number this morning where the bond yield had moved to 1.7%.