Mr. Conor O'Kelly:

It was what we call a reverse inquiry. We were contacted by an investor who was wondering whether we would be interested in issuing a bond of that length. We went through negotiations and discussions with them as to whether that would be worthwhile. It is not a big amount of money. The amount we issued was €100 million. That was the demand. The rate was 2.35%. In the context of where all our other bonds trade, that appeared at the time to be very good value and it still does today, notwithstanding the Deputy's point. When one looks at interest rates in the marketplace, in the Financial Timesor on a screen, it does not mean that we can access those interest rates just because there are on the screen. They are on the screen at €100,000 or €1 million in value. We issued €4 billion of a 30-year bond in 2015. The price at which the market is prepared to buy and lend us very significant amounts of money is the price that matters most to us. If it is there in a couple of million euro, it is not really a relevant price for us as an issuer. It is more for people trading in the marketplace. It does not necessarily mean that we can issue at that price. We felt it was a good thing to do. The demand is more a reflection of the desperation and the chase for yields that insurance companies and pension funds have in this extraordinary environment where so much of our interest rates are even in negative territory, including even Irish yields.