Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

To be honest, a number of prime ministers or leaders may not have been as sufficiently aware of the situation in other countries as they now are. At the conclusion of that meeting there was an understanding of how serious this is in the European context. The Deputy will have heard the comments of President Sarkozy about Ireland echoed by others. While we have done well, there remains a long way to go. No more than Portugal or any other small country, we want everyone to understand that if we are to get out of the bailout, we will need continued support for the path we are on.

My contributions to the various discussions on this matter were to remind people that all the decisions that must be made must be interlinked and must focus not alone on the bigger countries, but on all countries. As the Deputy correctly pointed out, contagion is not limited to the Greek situation or to any other individual country. The decisions to be made by the eurozone leaders tomorrow night must deal comprehensively and conclusively with this issue. It may well be that following those decisions details will have to be worked out, in some cases by the ECOFIN Ministers. There were serious expressions of concern by the leaders in regard to the potential that now exists to deal conclusively with this matter. That discussion went on for some time.

See this speech in context