Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

On Deputy McDonald's question as to who wrote this, she will recall I wrote to all the leaders some weeks ago setting out the position. Ireland was the first country to suggest the ESM should be licensed for direct injections into banks, an idea which then became common currency. Before attending the meeting, I made clear there was a twin objective in this regard. The first was to reach a conclusion on the growth agenda, which was highlighted by President Hollande during his election campaign, and which was agreed. The second objective was there should be a response to the banking crisis with particular reference to the legacy debt problem faced by Irish families and communities. In that regard, I refer to the acceptance of the principle about which I spoke last week in this Chamber, namely, if one had European direction and European liability, that needed a change in respect of what happened in Ireland where there was a direction with the liability being taken on by the Irish people and Irish families.

I pay tribute to the group of officials from all the countries who reflected on the clarity of Ireland's case, which resulted in Ireland being one of only two countries mentioned in the euro area summit statement in order to avoid any opportunity for not understanding what this was. Deputy McDonald was on a different side during the referendum campaign but I must tell her that the decision of the Irish people, in its clarity and decisiveness, certainly was credit in the bank for Ireland, to use a pun, with regard to the manner in which other leaders considered our problem and our country.

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