Mr. Ciar?n Devane:

It is not a question I have an easy answer to. The outcome is always that we need to accept our bit of the efficiency challenge. This is absolutely the case. I do not think there is usually an argument over the inflation component. There is then the demographic bit. If the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform is the decision-maker in this process and if its choice is to tell us that it wishes to keep us under a bit of pressure and scrutiny and will then come back to the matter in a few months, this may not be a pleasant situation for us to be in but it is the reality.