Mr. Michael Tutty:

It may well be but we cannot put everything on hold while the British look into their hearts and see whether they want to stay. We will see soon what exactly David Cameron and the British Government will put down on paper as their proposals but much of what is happening can happen within the euro area and not affect those outside the euro.

I think it was Deputy Durkan who suggested that everyone should be in the euro. It would be desirable if everyone was but the British are the main outliers. They are so hung up on having their own currency that they do not want to come in and no one will be able to force them to do so. The difficulties within the euro area in recent times would not have strengthened the case for persuading them to come in so it may be a long way down the road before that would be conceivable. I do not believe we can put everything on hold just because it might upset the British. If we need it to get economic and monetary union working well for the rest of us we should at least push ahead with having discussions on it.