Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

What is required, therefore, is a European response at a political level. The Deputy is well aware, from all of the reports and analysis to which he refers, of the range of difference that exists. Some analysts want the sovereign to be separated from the banking debt and we support that suggestion. Others want the ESM to be licensed to inject money directly into banks and we also support this suggestion. I was one of the first to put this suggestion forward.

Ireland continues to seek a re-engineering of the promissory note that was drafted in the way that it was. The Deputy is aware that this note requires the Government to produce or borrow €3 billion per year. The first element of this has, admittedly through a convoluted process, been put out to 2025. We are not happy with that as an end result. As has been pointed out on numerous occasions, this is a medium-term project and I do not expect answers in respect of it by next week.

It is important to say that the statements made by Commissioner Rehn and the IMF are important in the context of Ireland. It is not a case of publishing a paper. The various issues to which the Deputy referred all form part of the discussions and the need to deal with some is more immediate than is the case with others.

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