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

Yes, but the people who would be involved in making the decisions in this regard would be very much aware of that as a risk. We are talking about a member state government and a finance minister negotiating to secure additional funding in a time of crisis. In such a case the negotiation to which I referred earlier would look to strike the best possible balance between getting the member state out of the acute difficulty it could be in and preserving public services and living standards as they stand.

However, in the absence of a credit line such as this, the hit and damage that could be caused to public services and economic recovery would be far bigger. This could be pointing to a difference in approach between us in the operation of this line. I think it is appropriate that conditionality is in place regarding the access of a credit facility such as this, given this uses the pooled and credit funding of the European Union as a whole, to which countries contribute. The conditionality would also have to be agreed and get the balance right between maintaining public services as they stand and avoiding even worse difficulty if this credit line were not to be available to a country.