Dr. Se?n Healy:

Exactly. We would see it as learning a bit from something that happened a long time ago, which is the way that the Brits paid for the First World War. They spent the best part of a century paying off that debt. We think the pandemic debt should be separated from the existing national debt and financed by a really long-range European Central Bank, ECB, bond at a low interest rate or whatever. That would be available not just for Ireland but across the European Union or maybe the euro area, now I am thinking about it, because we are talking about the ECB and so on. That is the way to deal with this issue in the longer term.

On the fiscal rules generally, we feel they need to be updated. We argued with them on day one because we felt they were political rules rather than economic rules. They were not really based on solid economics. I think we would still be of that view. A lot of people feel now there have to be adjustments. We certainly would be supportive of adjustments. There should be a proper discussion on that.