Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I was interested in Professor McHale's commentary to my colleague, Deputy O'Donnell, on the issue of how the ESM might be used in respect the statement of the 29 June 2012 EU Heads of State meeting which referred to breaking the link between sovereign debt and banking debt and how we might get back some of the money put into the Irish banking system by the taxpayers. If we will not get a straight-up injection from the ESM or elsewhere to deal with the public funds that were put into the banking system to save the euro at the time or take a hit for the team, is it a political or an economic judgment by Professor McHale that the ESM is unlikely to be used to skin the cat a different way in respect of getting something back for the taxpayers? There is a strange fit. If the 400,000 tracker mortgages worth approximately €70 billion were taken off the balance sheets of our banks, it might be another way of dealing with the 29 June 2012 statement by the Heads of State. Is Professor McHale's observation to Deputy O'Donnell a political judgment or a commentary on the architecture of the ESM that it is simply not feasible?