Mr. Gary Tobin:

It is a very good question. There have been a number of challenges. For starters, the Cathaoirleach may recall that on foot of the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU instigated a recovery and resilience plan in which a very substantial number of grants and loans were given to members states impacted by Covid. In fact, it is upwards of €800 billion. Some of those loans that were taken out incur interest on the financial markets. The European Commission has to pay interest on those loans. Just as interest rates have increased for mortgage holders, they have also increased for sovereigns. The European Commission has to pay back a lot more interest, so that is a problem.

As well as that, there is the cost of living. We see that the cost of living has increased. In a sense, inflation has also increased the costs for the European Union as it carries out all its projects and expenditure and it now costs more to do the same amount it had planned.

There are also costs related to migration and the EU's external borders. We have obviously seen a lot of emergency refugees coming into the EU and that has led to costs. There are a variety of challenges but largely it relates to Ukraine, inflation and the cost of interest payments.