Mr. John Corrigan:

The key question around debt sustainability is whether there is visibility and a reasonable expectation that the debt as a percentage of GDP will stabilise and begin to fall. If we stick to the troika targets, then based on the current forecasts we will see the debt stabilising in end 2013 and falling through 2014. The markets are taking a positive view of Ireland in this respect. In his opening comments, the Comptroller and Auditor General referred to the fact that ten-year yields during the middle of last year were 14%. Moreover, two-year yields were 22%. We do not have a precise ten-year issue but the read on those now if one were to extrapolate the yield curve is that there would be yield of sub-5% on a ten-year yield and approximately 2% yield on a two-year paper.