Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

Everybody deserves a break. Whatever differences I have with the Members on the other side of the House, I recognise it has been a fairly intense few months in here and all of us have a difficult situation to deal with. I do not doubt that Members have been working hard in their own way by their own lights in order to attempt to deal with the situation.

Also, it is important to dispel the myth that politicians will all be swanning off for the next six or eight weeks on holidays. They deserve a break and no doubt will take one, but many of them will be working for most of that time, either in their constituencies or on the issues that affect the country.

That being said, however, there is a strong and legitimate case for keeping the Dáil convened for a few more days. First, the issue of the European summit is a serious matter. While there are some positive noises about what may happen there in terms of trying to deal with the debt crisis, there have been similar sounds before previous summits which turned out to be quite other than what people hoped and the contagion spread. People are anxious and deserve to hear a full report and to have this House interrogate fully the outcome of that summit.

In particular, one element of the Taoiseach's speech yesterday in terms of what might come out of that summit alarmed me greatly and if any such arrangement is put in place, it is certainly something that we need to discuss. It is that if there was any talk of lengthening the maturities on loans and lowering interest rates, it may include a collateral arrangement where appropriate.

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