Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

The Minister of State, Deputy Dick Roche, has made the same mistake as all former bureaucrats. He confuses the bureaucracy with the Council of Ministers. The decisions on the bailout were made by ECOFIN. When the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, had to have a conference call on the Sunday night with ECOFIN, it made the decisions and then, on the following Sunday, when he had to fly to Brussels to a special meeting, it was to a meeting of ECOFIN. It makes the decisions. The Commission makes proposals and carries out the decisions of the Council of Ministers. The Minister of State's great defence of the bureaucracy which might enhance him in Brussels sounded more like a job application for the Commission rather than having any relevance to this debate.

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