Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

There is no provision for Ireland to step back into the EFSF and the EFSF would have to be amended to allow it. There is no question of that happening, however, because the ESM has been agreed to at the highest level in the European Union and signed by representatives of member states. All I am saying is that because it has not yet come through the national Parliaments, there is still potential for minor amendments. It does not require a referendum, whether here, in Germany or anywhere else. Some countries, as Deputies know, can implement constitutional changes in Parliament without having a referendum. The advice is that the introduction of the ESM does not require constitutional change, certainly in Ireland, and that it will be this House and the Seanad that decide on the matter.

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