Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am curious to know more because the term special case has been used. The Taoiseach tells us that Angel Merkel, Mr. Hollande and all the others recognise us as a special case. Will the Taoiseach set out for us what they understand by this? It is a turn of phrase the Taoiseach has used regularly but there is no clarity to what is meant by it.

The Taoiseach still seems to be placing all his eggs in the retrospection basket on account of last June's agreement. The difficulty with the announcement as cast some months ago is that it does not have a specific or explicit promise of retrospection or deal with legacy debt for Ireland. The statement referred to the sustainability of our programme. I note that in his responses to Deputy Martin the Taoiseach used that turn of phrase. When he is explaining the meaning of a special case perhaps he will unpick these two elements for us. The reference to the sustainability of the programme may not mean dealing with legacy debts. In addition, the Taoiseach seems remarkably confident that legacy issues will be dealt with despite the fact that certain rather influential voices, not least from within the German system, have been categoric in stating that this is not their understanding of the position. It is by no means a done deal, whether via the ESM or any other mechanism, that retrospection and legacy debt have been signed off and dealt with. Anyway, the Taoiseach might shed some light on this for us.

I call on the Taoiseach to refer specifically to the position on the promissory note because there has been a catalogue of statements and public utterances on the matter. The Taoiseach has referred to the technical complexities involved on the restructuring of the note. At one stage the troika were working on a paper on the promissory note but it seems to have vanished or at least we never got sight of it. Will the Taoiseach tell us specifically where this is and in specific terms how much progress has been made? Specifically, when will all the technical dilemmas and questions be ironed out? When will the Taoiseach be able to come into the Dáil and announce that an agreement has been reached?

In a reply to an earlier contribution from Deputy Ross the Taoiseach listed the litany of hardship that Greece and the Greek people are enduring. It made for sober listening. There is no question but that their system and society is under the most incredible pressures at the moment. However, I believe the Taoiseach, perhaps for his own political purposes, has discounted the extent to which Greece has outflanked and outperformed this State in securing a deal for itself, albeit in the most dire of circumstances. How is it that Greece, in the midst of crisis and in such a weakened position, can secure an agreement? Whether it will be adequate to ensure an end to its difficulties remains to be seen and I rather doubt it. However, we know that Greece has consistently achieved some level of recognition and relief while Ireland, also a special case according to the Taoiseach, has thus far had conversations, meetings, side-meetings and summits, but no result.

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