Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

What I laid out for the Deputy was the negotiating position put forward by me initially and which has become the Government's position. The mandate to the representatives of the troika who are engaged in producing a common policy paper is to find ways and means, whatever they are, to enhance Ireland's capacity to repay debt and enhance our position as I have outlined. However, certain things have been ruled out. It is clear from the October summit that private sector involvement, PSI, will only apply to Greece. This was written into the agreement of the 27 member states at the October summit. Nothing of that nature will be involved. We are not talking about resiling in any way from our obligations.

The Deputy will appreciate that the arrangement entered into by the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government for funding Anglo Irish Bank was an extraordinarily extravagant piece of financial engineering. In addition, taking an interest rate holiday has brought about a position in which the coupon is approximately 8.5% and stretches on for a long time. These decisions predated the bailout and were taken in the autumn of 2008 and early months of 2009 when the bailout programme was not in place.

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