Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The presentation given by the Italian Prime Minister at the heads of government meeting was a 15 page document of austerity reforms that he pledged - and he had a majority at that time - to implement in the interests of complying with the conditions that were agreed to by the heads of government of the European Union. I believe in politics and in political leadership and that when it makes a series of decisions that these things can work. I agree with the Deputy that there is a problem, an absolute confusion and a great deal of uncertainty. I have stated my views on this before. The only unlimited firepower, in financial terms, is the ECB. Obviously there are very different views, as Deputy Ross knows, within the ECB and the countries of the eurozone about this. The decision taken at the heads of government meeting was to use the two facilities, to leverage up the facility under the EFSF to more than a trillion euro and there are complications about that. I note that Mr. Draghi has made his comments that in the meantime the European Central Bank would continue to buy paper in whatever volume, as is necessary. I agree that the complexities arising from the technicalities of the deal to leverage that money still have not been worked out which leaves the ECB in the mainframe, as it were. Beyond that, this is a case of political leadership focusing on the decisions that must be made and those decisions are: to implement what was agreed at the heads of government meeting; to create that firewall; to put in place the technical decisions that are required under the insurance facility and the special service vehicle to leverage it so that the firewall can be created and the contagion, which everybody fears, does not spread beyond here.

The situation in Greece seems to have focused a little more clearly on what the future holds. Clearly the decision of the members of the Italian Parliament in the next few minutes may well decide the direction they will take in the future. The very strong feeling at the meeting of the eurozone leaders was to take the political decisions that are necessary to deal with the matter comprehensively. On behalf of Ireland, I contributed to that debate in several areas, with a particular emphasis on not losing focus on countries such as Ireland, because the focus and energy has been on Spain and Italy, to a great extent, arising from the situation in Greece. We do not want to see countries that are being bailed out, but are actually making progress, being left behind. I think that is well recognised now.

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