With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 18 and 19 together.
There are no indications of any outflow of capital arising from the bank dispute. Capital flows are likely to be determined primarily by such conditions as potential growth, interest rates and the adequacy of external reserves rather than short-term factors.
As regards participating or intervening in the negotiations now in progress, the position is that the parties are engaged in joint negotiation under their own joint industrial council with an industrial relations officer of the Labour Court acting as chairman. It would be outside my functions and, indeed, altogether inappropriate for me to intervene in the deliberations of this body.