Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

-----centre on the Greek crisis, restructuring, recapitalisation, continued governance, and so on. We are central to this process. When I met President Barroso last week, he made the point that Ireland should and will speak from a position of having a bailout arrangement that involves its having moved away from Greece entirely towards a point where it is making progress, albeit with a very long way to go. Clearly, Ireland is required to move the agenda constantly for Irish debt reduction, such that it will be more advantageous for it to move out of its bailout arrangement and enter the bond markets itself and be in charge of its economic destiny. These points are all part of the central agenda.

I cannot give the Deputy an up-to-date account of what is happening between the major players but papers are being discussed as we speak. Over the next day or two, we will be kept fully informed and make our best assessment as to what we must do at the meetings of the Ministers for Finance on Friday and Saturday and of other leaders on Sunday. We will not be found wanting in terms of opportunities to state the case of Ireland and Europe where we see it moving ahead of the curve and where there is ability to deal with responses from markets. The meeting was postponed last week to allow more time for the progress that is being made in these major areas. We will discuss these when we come back next week.

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