Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

There was no discussion about it. It was not the treaty that caused the problem here. It was caused by reckless government and reckless banks, and until we achieve a situation in which that can never happen again and order is restored to our public finances, we are not going to have the engine of growth and development that we all want, whereby jobs can be created. It was a number of summits ago that decisions were taken, in respect of Greece in particular, about bailout funds and increased leveraging of the EFSF, which did not actually happen. The Deputy is right in stating that markets have no confidence in that. That is why, in this case, the focus was entirely on the crisis within the eurozone. I am glad, at least, that the decisions taken by the heads of Government are reflected in the introduction of the ESM, minus the private sector involvement, the firewalls in respect of the ESF, the ESM and bilateral loans to the IMF, and the extra unlimited facilities available to banks from the ECB at a low interest rate. When I rang the former president of the ECB, Mr. Trichet, about this in March or April, his view was that the ECB would not extend loans to banks or countries at low interest rates but that they would continue at an emergency level only. That has now changed. The signals from Mr. Draghi are that if the political process achieves clarity and decisiveness about what it wants to do about the eurozone and the euro, the ECB, in respect of its independence and its integrity, will consider that from the point of view of whatever decision it wants to make.

Until we get to a point at which the engine of our own economy is revamped, we will not be able to provide the growth in our economy - and therefore the job opportunities - that we want to.

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