Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

However, today's interjection by the Taoiseach stated it was clear from his perspective that there was no opportunity to do that. I would accept it if the Minister for Finance, in isolation, put on the record his desire to talk to the ECB and challenge it with regard to a policy of reducing the commitment to senior bondholders at Anglo Irish Bank, for all the right reasons. There is scarcely anybody in the House who would not accept there is a case to be made. The Minister put forward the proposition that he would make that case. The indication was that he had not yet done so and that he was starting afresh. However, it now appears, based on what the Taoiseach said today, that the initial conversations had started and that the ECB had spoken vehemently against it from the beginning, when it was first raised in March. Are we to believe there was some kind of discord or disharmony between the Taoiseach and his Minister for Finance - that the Minister for Finance was not aware that the ECB was against the idea? Or was he aware? I do not want to call into question the integrity of the Minister for Finance or, indeed, the Taoiseach-----

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