Ms Barbara Nolan:

I wish to return to two points. I refer to Senator Hayden's comments about lack of solidarity and the point about Euroscepticism. I will deal first with the lack of solidarity. I was quite surprised at that comment because in my opinion Ireland has been shown much solidarity as a result of the crisis. If Ireland had not received EU and IMF assistance it would have been forced to close its schools and hospitals and to stop its social welfare system. Nobody was prepared to loan to Ireland. The EU loaned two thirds of the money and the IMF loaned one third. I thought there was remarkable solidarity which ensured that the country could keep functioning normally and it could continue to protect the most vulnerable from being left to one side. It kept the schools open and the public system working. There was also solidarity shown by countries outside the eurozone. Bilateral loans were given by a number of countries such as the UK, Denmark and Sweden. There has been remarkable solidarity shown at a time when there was no access to normal borrowing in any market -----