Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I follow Deputy Kenny's point on the role of Commission officials in the Department of Finance which the Taoiseach describes as a technical exercise. What is the intended outcome of that technical exercise? Is it intended there will be a report from those officials to the Commission? Will the Government have access to such a report and is it intended that it would be made available to the Opposition parties in the course of time when completed?

I refer to the wider batch of questions tabled, in particular with regard to the informal summit on 16 September which discussed the general economic situation in Europe. After that summit the Taoiseach was reported as having stated there was no discussion at the summit, formally or informally, of Ireland's economic situation. I was surprised because I would have thought there would be at least some reference to the situation at the summit meeting.

The Taoiseach stated he met the president of the European Central Bank on the margins of that meeting and had a discussion with him. Did he raise with the ECB president, Mr. Trichet, comments he made a few days before the summit in which he was reported to have said that eurozone members in breach of the region's rules on public finances might be excluded temporarily from Europe's political decision-making? These were comments which were made by Mr. Trichet a few days before the summit in which he is reported to have said that eurozone members in breach of the region's rules on public finances might be excluded temporarily from Europe's political decision making. I found that an extraordinary statement and I wonder whether the Taoiseach raised that matter with the ECB president when he met him.

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