Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I am sure the Deputy is aware that we paid it last year, admittedly without the interest component, and the world did not change. While we are conscious of the difficulties this imposes on the State, the €3.1 billion was paid last year. People need to be aware of that fact.

We have taken an incremental approach to the negotiations with our external funders. Last year we managed to renegotiate the deal in the case of the minimum wage, the total cost of the bailout money, whether new loans should be sent to the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, and, as was seen today, whether we could use the proceeds from the sale of State assets for the purposes of investment and job creation in the economy. It is the considered view of the Government that this incremental, step-by-step approach to solving our problems is far more useful than an approach based on shouting, roaring and screaming at the top of one's voice to try to impose things on others. This is an outstanding issue-----

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