Dr. Kieran McQuinn:

Yes, very much so. We both worked for the Central Bank previously, so we always have an interest in financial stability considerations. We are watching the situation with significant interest and concern about the potential implications especially from the point of view of investment. That is one area, particularly in view of what happened in the United States with Silicone Valley Bank, SVB.

In terms of the domestic application, while we can never be complacent about these issues, given that any issues related to banking fragility can be huge, as we know to our cost. However, as far as domestic institutions are concerned, broadly speaking, if anything, they have been on the conservative side over the past ten years in terms of their lending practices. Obviously, there have been lots of regulatory changes within the euro area and that has probably contributed to making the Irish banking sector being more stable than it has been for some time. We can never be totally sure in terms of some of the investment decisions of banks on long-term fixed bonds. That is where some of these financial institutions have become particularly vulnerable because of the hike in rates. In the absence of Irish institutions availing of those, however, we cannot see it having a huge impact on the domestic financial sector. Broadly speaking, it could have implications for interest rate policy. It could cause the ECB to slow down its policy of rate increases, in particular if there are more tremors, if one likes, in European banking markets. It is obviously something of concern but at this stage I do not think it is something which is going to adversely impact the domestic banking system.