Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for his very comprehensive presentation. As always, he sets out issues clearly and concisely and often detailed questions are not required. However, I have one or two questions. I ask the Minister of State to expand on the banking union. He rightly identified the heads of state and government Council decision of 29 June 2012 to break the link between banks and the sovereign. Mr. Klaus Regling is very familiar with the situation in Ireland as he carried out a detailed report in 2010 on behalf of the then Government in an effort to understand the reasons for the banking collapse. He is now chairman of the ESM. In a recent statement he has indicated that the process of retrospective recapitalisation by the ESM is less likely. I ask the Minister of State to comment although I accept he may not have all the details to hand and he may be prepared to provide those at a later stage.

I refer to other reports that seem to emanate from the European Commission that it will retain some form of surveillance on the Irish economy up to the year 2031. The media are making a certain amount of this statement. The various agreements such as the six pack and the two pack have been agreed with all members of the European Monetary Union. Is it not the case that the Commission is undertaking a level of shared co-operation and shared surveillance of various budgeting processes in particular? I ask if the Minister of State has any further insight into this surveillance which will last until 2031.