Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Yesterday at the committee, the Governor of the Central Bank confirmed what the Minister for Finance has said and what the Taoiseach and I have said here consistently, namely, that the Government is negotiating an arrangement whereby the cash payment of the promissory note will be settled by way of a long-term Government bond. He confirmed that those negotiations are going well and expressed optimism, which I share, that they will be concluded successfully. The negotiations are complex and technical and are proceeding. I share the Governor's confidence that they will be concluded successfully.

To be honest and in the country's interest, the time is here when Deputy Adams should put country before party. In the country's interest, he should wish this process well, rather than rise here every day and be gleeful, as he is now, at any prospect that the process will go wrong.

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