Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

Of course that appetite for reform is displayed in the four year plan and in fairness all the parties contributed to the chapter dealing with fiscal reform. So there is all-party agreement on that important issue. However, the word "renegotiation" is being used all the time and it may become a semantic issue in the general election campaign. Of course the reality is that the rates applied by the IMF and by the European mechanism, and the rate supplied in the European facility were all fixed by relevant prior instrument and were not the subject of negotiation. While people may shake their heads all they like, that is the reality the Government had to face. Any commentator who knows anything about the IMF will explain that its lending rates are fixed by its own internal regulations and procedures. There is not a special rate negotiated for Ireland any more than there was a special rate negotiated, for example, for the United Kingdom when it got an IMF loan in the 1970s. The existing regulations are applied. The same arrangement exists for the European facilities and mechanisms.

Deputy Burton is correct about a debate under way in Europe about the extent to which this is imposing an excessive burden on the sustainability of the finances of member states that participate in the facilities and mechanisms. I have been fully participating in this debate at the January euro group meeting and the debate will continue at the February meeting, which clearly will take place during the general election campaign and which I will need to attend because of the vital national interest involved.

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