Mr. Conor O'Kelly:

I do stand over the comment because the interest bill has come down from €7.5 billion to €3.5 billion today over the last six years. The interest bill is really the burden that is being passed on. Because of the low interest rate environment, notwithstanding the larger amount of debt, the average interest rate on our total stock of debt today is 1.5%, the lowest that it has ever been. Our interest bill at €3.5 billion is twice what it was in the 1980s even though Government revenue is ten times what it was in the 1980s. I am just trying to talk about the burden.

The debt per capitais not my favourite statistic to look at because the most impressive countries in terms of debt per capitaare Greece, Cyprus and Slovenia. Their other debt metrics are not ones that I would want Ireland to replicate. Debt per capitacan be a bit of a false read. The Deputy would want to be looking at interest bill as a percentage of Government revenue, debt as a percentage of Government revenue and ratios like that to get a fuller picture.