Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is no problem.

The third task the European Central Bank was charged with concerned the balance the payments. Is a core cause of the eurozone crisis that countries forgot about the balance of payments? Rather crudely, the balance of payments position is the test of whether a country will be solvent in the long run. There are countries running deficits left, right and centre, with no consequences. If a country had had its own currency, things would have happened to it that would have meant governments and central banks would have had to do something. However, since we did not have a national currency, people saw the balance of payments position as a phenomenon in which economists alone were interested and they believed it would not really have a great impact on them. This is because all the other warning signs were taken away.

How does Mr. Coffey envisage banking union evolving? With the inevitable pressures that have emerged as negotiations have begun, does he still envisage the ESM playing a role in the direct recapitalisation of future banks, leaving aside the issue about which Senator Kathryn Reilly talked? Will it be a credible component of banking union as opposed to what we would like to happen?