Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak on this important Bill amending the European Financial Stability Facility and the Euro Area Loan Facility. As the House knows, the Bill effectively facilitates the implementation of the agreement of eurozone Heads of Government last July. It is extremely important both to Ireland and to the eurozone, as we have seen in recent days and weeks, and also to the wider global economy. While I do not pretend it will solve all of our problems or that it will definitively put an end to the uncertainty that has plagued the eurozone, there is no doubt it will make a difference to Ireland and to the eurozone to some limited extent.

Until last March, it is fair to say Ireland was deadlocked in its negotiations on a reduction in the interest rate on our loan package. This was an extremely frustrating place for us to be and an extremely difficult one in terms of trying to ease the burden on Irish taxpayers. We were politically paralysed as a nation at that point, unable to achieve even the slightest degree of flexibility regarding the terms of the IMF-EU bailout programme. It has been my experience in recent months, as I have met counterparts from other Governments throughout the EU, that our reputation was in tatters, to put it mildly. Right across the EU and beyond, on a global basis, rightly or wrongly, we were regarded as being spendthrift, arrogant and as not having anything to contribute, which reflected extremely badly on us and on our ability to negotiate.

It is fair to say we have come a long way since then. In just over six months, the perception of Ireland has changed dramatically. The Government has managed to renegotiate some of the terms of the IMF-EU loan, enabling us, for example, to introduce the jobs budget. While some on the other side of the House may scoff at that, anybody who talks to retailers, particularly in the hospitality sector, including restaurants, pubs, hotels and so on, will almost unanimously say it has made a profound impact on their trade, and they welcome the measures introduced by the Government earlier in the year. These have boosted trade, in particular tourism over the summer months, whether Deputy Boyd Barrett likes to acknowledge it or not. I know it is difficult for him to acknowledge that anything at all that happens in this country is good but-----

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