Mr. Rory Montgomery:

To quote my old friend, "did we all party?" I do not know. However, one other point I will make is that there was an active debate on the reform of economic and monetary union, EMU, up to 2015 or 2016. When I was in the Department of the Taoiseach, I represented Government at official level in a lot of discussions about reform. The recovery of the economy and a lot of the issues that have come along since have swept a lot of this away. There is still a long-term question about whether there is sufficient fiscal and economic integration within the Union to sustain monetary union in the long term. These are issues that will come back sooner or later. However, thank God, they are not on the agenda at the moment. I have one more anecdote about the importance of communicating with the media. In hindsight, one of my stickier moments as permanent representative was in autumn 2010, about a month before the bailout. Deirdre Farrell, my wonderful press officer in the permanent representative's office, decided it would be a good idea for me to brief German journalists about the state of our economy. They were very polite and professional. However, as I went through the narrative of "fully funded" and "fundamentals are sound" and so on, I could sense their disbelief coming towards me in waves. It shows that you are performing, and in moments of crisis you have not only to persuade the domestic public but also on the wider European stage, if not the public then the infrastructure of politicians and media, that you are doing the right thing.