Dr. Martin O'Brien:

Dr. Kelly mentioned the sheer dynamics of how one evaluates sustainability, such as running surpluses or having growth higher than the interest rate. On the running of surpluses, it certainly would be a challenge to run surpluses if some of the supports we have had to introduce - appropriately introduced given the shocks we have had through Covid and with the energy crisis - were to become permanent or quasi-permanent in any form. It would be much more challenging to run those surpluses unless they were sustainably funded over a longer term. A key part of maintaining that broadly favourable outlook towards 2025 and the sustainability beyond that 2025 horizon is going to be how we take the choices and how the choices are made around managing those temporary supports to ensuring they are actually temporary.