Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

It is ludicrous that we are taking Questions Nos. 1 to 65 together. We should return to a position of having Taoiseach's questions on two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, as was the case until the Taoiseach arbitrarily decided to reduce the number to one day.

On the summit meeting, I concur with the Taoiseach that the decision to break the link between the sovereign and bank debt is welcome, although much more remains to be revealed. The devil will be in the detail or, as Colm McCarthy wrote this morning: "The devil is in the principles." Clearly, the position in Italy and Spain is critical and Prime Minister Mario Monti basically had to cry halt. He went into the summit meeting and called a halt to the Italian situation and received the backing of Prime Minister Rajoy. In fairness to President Hollande, he supported both Prime Ministers. The fundamental issue was the separation of sovereign and banking debt but, more than that, the need to take decisive action to save the euro. From the Irish perspective, the latter is the most important outcome of the summit. It is worth saving the euro.

The Finnish and Dutch Governments have voiced concern about the element of the agreement which suggests the European Stability Mechanism may buy bonds on the secondary market. Colm McCarthy notes that, in essence, this means the European Central Bank is being replaced with a buyer whose balance sheet constraint is known, which is a retrograde step. The Dutch and Finns are not trying to be awkward or opposing the outcome of the summit but expressing legitimate and rational concerns that this may not be the best route forward. While some useful decisions were taken, it is their view that the crisis will prevail until the central question is addressed, namely, how does one develop a lender of last resort - my party has consistently argued that the ECB should be the lender of last resort - in order that one has a mechanism, either the ECB or an agency thereof, that is decisive and can take action with conviction on the bond market. That issue remains to be decided upon. The ESM buying on the secondary market has not worked thus far and is unlikely to work in future given that it only has some €500 billion at its disposal.

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