Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I accept that. If the Deputy works with me I will try to tease out the issue for him. The ECB set its face against that, which was regrettable. I welcome the continued efforts by the current Government and the Minister for Finance to try to ensure that on the broader level, in terms of the resolution of the financial crisis, pressure will be brought to bear on the ECB to ensure burden sharing ultimately becomes a reality. However, it cannot be done in isolation.

I do not want to harp back to the election debate, but some of the then Opposition Members, who are now in Government, sought to create the impression that it was only a matter of senior members of the Government taking themselves to Europe and facing down those who set their faces against burden sharing. The suggestion was that if the proper negotiators were in place, the issue could be resolved. They are now learning the lesson that it is not quite as easy as that.

It is interesting that the Minister for Finance, recognising some of the commitments of his backbenchers and his banking expert, Deputy Mathews, and that he had not been able to achieve success in that regard, took himself to New York recently.

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