Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Deputy Ross makes the point that the Government was elected with a very strong mandate either to remedy or repudiate the situation. The Government sought the agreement of the European Central Bank to repudiate the situation in so far as bondholders were concerned. The ECB refused to give its agreement or consent for such a move and did so in the most trenchant fashion, both when I spoke to Mr. Trichet and on the numerous occasions on which the Minister for Finance spoke to him. As it was not possible to reverse the position, the Government pursued an alternative strategy based on trust, confidence, integrity and Ireland paying its way. The consequence of this strategy has been that we have secured the support of our colleagues in Europe. This is self-evident in the changes that have been made to the memorandum of understanding in so far as the Government's priority for job creation and providing incentives for employment is concerned and in the support shown by our colleagues by agreeing to a substantial interest rate reduction, one which will result in a saving for the Irish taxpayer of €10 billion over the period of the programme. It is also self-evident in the support, even at last Sunday's meeting, for countries such as Ireland which are in a bailout scenario.

While the agenda for last week's meeting was focused principally on Greece, the restructuring and recapitalisation capacity for leveraging the European Financial Stability Facility and future governance requirements, Ireland, as a small country that was not directly in focus - no more than Portugal was - was the recipient of very strong support from our eurozone colleagues. The concern, which resulted in Prime Minister Berlusconi having to bring a 15 page document to the eurozone meeting, speaks for itself about the priority attached to the situation in Italy. At the meeting, a good deal of comment was made about the potential catastrophe facing the eurozone if things were suddenly to go wrong. From that point of view, Ireland has pursued a very steady course. We are pursuing alternative approaches to having the burden on our taxpayers reduced. The decision made last weekend allows for further discussions and negotiations in that respect and the Minister for Finance will pursue the matter with other Ministers for Finance. I did not instruct the bank to buy back the bonds at a reduced rate.

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