Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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I appreciate that. I specifically did not mention the ESM and what are known as the pillar banks. I am just talking about the promissory note. In September it was a year since the Minister for Finance got approval from Jean-Claude Trichet, without preconditions, to examine a common paper. We are 14 months on from that and there is no common paper. I know it involves technical discussions and so on. Many people believe the ECB, the Department in terms of political pressure and our Central Bank must hammer this issue out together. I can understand how the 14 month gap can be filled with paper passing to and fro, but it appears the need to resolve this issue has not been realised. We have missed one tranche in terms of the 31 March deadline and there is an impact on the budget in terms of not being able to secure this deal prior to the budget because not only is there the €3.1 billion payment on 31 March but also the one year bond which, if not rolled over, would have to be redeemed in June. That this has not been resolved makes Mr. Moran's job much more difficult in terms of budgetary advice for the Department.