Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

-----and a very limited contribution from the last Government in particular. Nor do I agree with the Deputy that it was a mistake to devolve responsibility for continued negotiation on the principle of an interest rate reduction to the finance Ministers. I repeat that the reason the Heads of Government made that decision was that the stress tests on the Irish banks were not complete. As leader after leader has said, we cannot make a decision in the absence of the figures, and the figures were not known at that stage. That is why the authority was devolved to the Ministers for finance. As Deputies know, there is a meeting of ECOFIN on Sunday and Monday, and this issue will arise in those discussions. In addition, I will meet with the President of the European Council, Mr. Van Rompuy, here on Friday to discuss a range of issues.

With regard to the Deputy's comment on medium-term funding, it would be beneficial for everybody if such funding were made available now. When I spoke to Mr. Trichet by telephone when he was in China about Ireland's position, he stated ECB-guaranteed funding would continue for Ireland, irrespective of a downgrading or not following the publication of the stress tests.

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