Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

There is merit in what the Deputy says. Clearly, national political considerations play a part in the activity level and the response of a number of European leaders. That goes without saying. I have made the point at European People's Party meetings for several years that in the production of the Lisbon agenda Europe failed to deal with that - as the Deputy knows, it was a proposal under which Europe was to measure up to the United States on the one hand and countries of the Far East on the other in terms of economic activity and the creation of jobs. There is now a refocusing on what Europe, as a union of 500 million people, can do. There were a number of comments about that.

As the economic situation has become clearer in a number of countries, people are focusing on the necessity of a European response with regard to the protection of the euro. This was a central feature of last weekend's discussions and it will obviously be discussed on many future occasions. I did not raise the issue of burden-sharing individually. However, the programme for Government is committed to it. When the stress-test position becomes clearer on Thursday, we will decide how best to deal with the consequences.

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