Mr. Ciarán Nugent:

Just on the real wage issue, there are two complexities we must remember when we are talking about an increase in average real wages. One is obviously sectoral. For example, over the last six years, most of what has happened has been part of a compositional change to employment, with a high rate of growth in IT. It has the highest-paying jobs, so the highest earners have been driving that average, whereas the bottom 50% to 60% of the wage distribution has been fairly flat over those six years. It has been unchanged for many, other than for those on the minimum wage, which this year is now ahead of the rate of inflation. The other complexity is that the consumer price index, CPI, captures the costs facing different households. There is an intergenerational issue there, obviously, with housing and rent. As the cost of rent goes up at 7% a year and wages go up at 5% a year, we are seeing younger workers priced out of the housing market by more every year. That has been a trend for the last ten years. The average real wage growth is really obscuring what is being delivered to different groups in Irish society.