Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

No, that option is not open to us. Let us be absolutely clear about it: it is clear in the treaty that the EFSF is prepared to continue funding that is already committed to under the existing programme. That programme finishes at the end of 2013. The Government's intention is that we will be back in the markets at that stage. To get back in to the markets we must get our economy to recover, to grow and so on. This is why the inward investment I referred to earlier and the various jobs announcements and so on are important. We are confident we will be able to continue to attract such investment provided there is continued investor confidence in the country.

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