Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Deputy Martin will realise that there are other leaders in this besides me and their schedules are such that it is often not practical to hold formal bilateral meetings in advance of eurozone or EU summit meetings. It is quite some time since we made arrangements in respect of meeting the German Chancellor, and that will be finalised shortly.

While I do not want to place an emphasis on meeting leaders on the fringes of these meetings, these are important connections in their own way. While they are not formal bilateral occasions - I had three at the second last meeting and three with the euro partnerships - they take some scheduling because of other people's requirements.

Since the Lisbon treaty, President Van Rompuy has responsibility for determining the agenda for the meeting. It is not like the normal cumann meeting at which one has items Nos. 1 to 5. I spoke to him before both meetings and we discussed the impact and the observations of Ireland and our interest in regard to the main items on the agenda, which were the Greek debt position, firewalls and contagion, as did every other country. It was not a case of no countries circulating papers and saying "This is what we think we should discuss here". The main agenda was determined by him, as is his requirement and responsibility following the Lisbon treaty. It may well be that, during the course of the meetings, an amendment to the translation, to an issue that is under discussion or to the conclusions that are being drawn up will be circulated by individual members. For instance, in regard to the governance issue, the point was made about having some connection with countries before they would present their budgets. I made the point that, while many countries were in excessive deficit positions, countries in a programme like Ireland is were already under a great deal of scrutiny by the troika and that it should not be necessary on those occasions. That point was removed but, as the Deputy knows, one has to circulate the wording one wants approved at the meeting.

From that point of view, it is a case of having time to make arrangements for all of these things. It might be nice to set off on a European tour of the eurozone countries and include three or four over a day's session or whatever, but the Deputy will also appreciate that the requirements of the troika here have required up to 30 pieces of legislation in this particular session. It has been pretty hectic for everybody, the Deputy included, since the summer recess.

It is a case of making arrangements to talk with them at the meetings - before and after - and, in due course after it has settled down a bit, maybe having more time to focus on structuring formal bilaterals. I would not want to lead the Deputy astray - it is not an interest of mine. I like to think that we can keep a handle on the difficulties that we face here, deal with those in the first instance and, where necessary, talk to other leaders either by telephone or before or after meetings. In due course, we will get around to having formal bilaterals with them all.

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