Mr. John McCarthy:

That question is back in my space but very difficult to answer. On what would be a sustainable growth rate of an economy, it is a question of what happens on the supply side. In other words, it is related to the endowment of capital and labour in the economy. It is a matter of how fast the labour force can grow, how fast productivity can grow and so forth. The Deputy's question is very difficult to answer from an Irish perspective, given the openness of the economy. In other words, an economy that is growing strongly can suck in labour from abroad in two ways. Irish people who have emigrated would come back and a lot of eastern Europeans who have settled here would bring their families into the country. The concept is very difficult. Sometimes when we meet investors and so forth we can say that potentially the sustainable growth rate in the United States is of the order of 2.5%, or perhaps 3%. What is the sustainable growth rate in Massachusetts? If it was to suffer a shock, be it positive or negative, people would leave or come in. It is very difficult to predict the figures on a regional basis. Having said that, I will give the Deputy a figure, but it carries health warnings. My own view is that the potential growth rate of the economy is somewhere in the order of 3%, perhaps a little higher, but it is evenly broken down between growth in labour supply and productivity. Please remember that my forecast carries health warnings.