Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I do not agree that the devil is in the principle here. The principle was very clear. As Deputy Martin knows, the European Council discussed, decided, agreed and signed off on its conclusions. The page in respect of the euro area summit statement is very clear: "We affirm that it is imperative to break the vicious circle between banks and sovereigns." This principle, which had not been accepted before, has been agreed and decided. As I stated, nothing was agreed until everything was agreed. In respect of the ESM, I note the comments of the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, and the Finnish Prime Minister, Jyrki Katainen, both of whom spoke at the meeting in regard to their views on this matter. However, this is what was agreed and signed off on. We now have a great deal of work to do on the detail of working out the implementation of this principle, what that means in respect of the ESM and how it can be adapted here.

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