Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

I appreciate the Members who have attended today. I also appreciate that Members are busy and that several committees are meeting at this time also.

Senator Reilly asked about the treaty's inflexibility. I have tried to address some of her concerns regarding the three year transition period and how the one twentieth requirement is calculated. There was some misunderstanding about this. One can have flexibility but one must also have rules. We saw flexibility taken to an extreme in the past, in a way that did not serve this State. Flexibility is all well and good but we must have parameters and rules by which we set standards, and we must meet those standards. It is in our interest that we meet them, for some of the reasons I have pointed out. It is also in our interest that other member states meet them. In the interconnected world we live in that is now more important than ever.

I answered Senator Colm Burke's question on my previous visit to the House and I will not do so again. Senator Darragh O'Brien raised the issue of whether the Government sought a write-down of the debt. I answered that question on a previous occasion, perhaps not in this House. We are looking for debt sustainability and our focus is on the promissory notes. The Government is working hard with the troika to reach an agreement on a reduced interest rate on repayments and potentially - and I do not want to be prescriptive because this is still part of a negotiating process - on the extension of the repayment period.