Dr. Donal Donovan:

This relates to the difficulty of effecting change where the labour force is ageing and part of it has become unemployed. Deputy Boyd Barrett asked whether we are concerned about unemployment and if we think about the issue. We think about and are concerned by the issue. I hope everybody is concerned about it, including politicians. Solving it, however, is a much harder task.

I cannot speak authoritatively on the second point raised by the Deputy but it is my understanding that there is not an explicit amount identified as regards expected privatisation receipts that are in the budget for this year. While that statement is correct, the budgetary projections for next year and the following year and the aggregate contained in the memorandum of understanding with the troika and so forth may implicitly include savings or proceeds from privatisation. I do not believe such proceeds have been identified explicitly, although the Deputy should not hold me to that.