Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I urge the Minister to be highly ambitious on behalf of the Government in the negotiations, given the scale of the capital injection into the Irish banks. If the principle agreed last week to separate bank debt from the sovereign is to be implemented in full, then we have a very strong case for the €64 billion issue to be revisited. The Minister's negotiating position will be supported by Fianna Fáil. We wish him well. This is critical for Ireland. It could certainly be of great benefit to the public finances, the national debt and the economic recovery we want to see. We want the Minister to be highly ambitious and put the entire €64 billion on the table as a starting point.

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