Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Tá mé buíoch don Teachta Adams as ucht an cheist a chur seo orm. Bhí mé ag seasamh suas ar son mhuintir na h-Éireann. I did not actually agree that the issue should be taken off the agenda. In fact, I proposed that it be taken off the agenda. I agreed that with President Van Rompuy the day before because I wanted to be clear that we would be in a much better position to do any negotiations about either an interest rate reduction or adjustments to the programme under the IMF and EU package once the extent of the banking stress tests is known here in Ireland. It was not a case of agreeing, but rather a case of proposing and achieving agreement. The decision of the Heads of Government was that as there will not be a full Council meeting again until June, it would not be appropriate that the Ministers for Finance should take the next step until we were clear after next Thursday about the scale and extent of the stress tests.

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