Mr. Frank O'Connor:

The specific direct answer is Irish Government bonds. If I could strip it back and explain it, approximately €4 billion comes in from the post office savings bank fund. It is a diversified source of funding for the State that has been there for many years. That comes into our general liquidity pot. However, approximately 10% to 12.5% of that, going back to the 1990s, is used in what we call the secondary trading market of Irish Government bonds, to add a little liquidity to investment for a return. Adding liquidity to the market also gives us price discovery. We are approximately 2% of the turnover and it is has been a very useful source.

If the Deputy remembers, in the past, one took that short-term money from the post office savings bank and invested part of it in longer-term bonds at the old interest rates of 4% and 5%, so it generated quite a high return. However, in this rate environment, and the Deputy probably read this in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report, the income from that did not outstrip the fees for what we pay to customers and in post office fees.