Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

There is an increasing tendency on behalf of Government to hector or lecture people in terms of this debate. We are all concerned, or at least I am very concerned, about the survival of the euro, and I made that point very determinedly in my speech. I made the point that the summit addressed the wrong issue. The most fundamental issue is the mandate of the ECB and it becoming a lender of last resort. That should have been the focus of the summit, not what has become its centrepiece.

Yesterday morning at 8 o'clock I asked whether any economic impact assessment had been done in regard to this deal. It is clear no economic impact assessment has been undertaken in advance of the summit, which I find incredible. It should have happened and we should have one organised urgently for the benefit of Members of the House and the public. While the Tánaiste is correct that members of the public are interested they are the last to know about anything and the Dáil is the second last to know. The letter to President Van Rompuy should have been given to the Dáil well in advance of the summit. This kind of operation of giving it to RTE in the news bulletin before the summit-----

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