Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The key players were around the table.

Since the markets reacted positively to the 29 June agreement, a factor, I am sure, in the capacity of the NTMA to return to the treasury bill and bond markets in July and last week, and on which platform the Minister for Finance and his officials have sought to build, with a degree of success, I might say, there have been intensive discussions between the officials of the Department of Finance and their counterparts abroad. They have had meetings in Paris, Berlin, Helsinki, Rome and The Hague and have had lots of conversations about specific issues from here to there.

The discussions with the troika, especially with the ECB, on replacing the promissory note have been ongoing for over a year. We had some success in the settling of the 31 March 2012 payment under a long-term Government bond. The direct recapitalisation of Irish banks is clearly and directly linked to developments in Spain and is contingent on the establishment of a single European banking supervisor. The proposals for that, as Deputy Martin knows, were presented by the European Commission just last week.

Those intensive discussions between the officials and their counterparts were followed up last week by the Minister, Deputy Noonan. He has given his progress report on that, which was accepted generally as being satisfactory given that these are very complex issues. There were also statements and comments by the ECB, the IMF and the Commission on the progress this country has made in restoring order to the public finances, in restructuring the banking system and in delivering on more than 120 measures in the EU-IMF programme. This has been recognised as a real strength, although a challenge for us here, in our negotiations on the banking debt.

The question of dealing with the promissory note and the requirement to pay €3.1 billion each March is an issue that is central to these discussions. As the Minister, Deputy Noonan, pointed out on Saturday, there is strong political support for dealing with that problem in respect of Ireland. It is how one deals with it that is the question. It would obviously have beneficial implications for Ireland and our debt level if a way could be found to deal with it that was satisfactory.

I do not really deal in speculation about deadlines. I can echo for the Deputy the comments by the ECB on Friday last, namely, that negotiators are under heavy time pressure, as they called it. I would like to think that the end of October target date could be met but, frankly, I do not see that as a reality. As I told Deputy Adams, I am far more concerned with getting the maximum deal for the taxpayer and the country in the negotiations that are ongoing. As I said clearly, Spain is an issue there. What the Spanish negotiators are doing is obviously an issue that has a direct bearing on us here also.

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