Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I pointed out to Deputy Boyd Barrett that the bailout situation the Government inherited has had to be renegotiated on a phased basis as stated in the programme for Government. The Minister for Finance will contribute to the ECOFIN meeting on Friday and Saturday and I will do the same at the leaders' meetings of the EU and the eurozone on Sunday. We will focus on explaining the progress made here in all these meetings and we will make every effort at every opportunity to take whatever opportunity will result in the level of debt burden on this country being reduced.

Europe is looking for some success and, as Deputy Boyd Barrett is aware, the ground has shifted on many occasions. This is the reason for the meetings on Friday and Saturday and the Heads of Government meeting on Sunday. I hope the issues I have outlined, the five major issues under discussion, will be prepared, debated and decided upon on Sunday and that this will bring about some sense of conclusion to the situation with some confidence.

It will not be easy. There are different opinions across the spectrum but we are in a situation where we are fully funded to the end of 2013. Deputy Boyd Barrett and the people here can be assured we will take every opportunity to explain the opportunities that exist for a lessening of the burden of debt on our people. At the same time we will explain that we want to pay our way and we will pay our way as we have always done. It is naïve in the extreme for Deputy Boyd Barrett to stand here and equate this country with Greece.

See this speech in context