Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will keep it brief. Deputy Adams asked about the status of the European Council decision of 29 June. It is as it was. The decision was to break the vicious circle between sovereign and bank debt, taking into account the particular analysis of the well-performing programme in Ireland, that equal cases would receive equal treatment, and that following this the architecture of the single supervisory mechanism would be set in place. These discussions are under way. The decision of the European Council stands and has not been changed or revoked. It is now being followed through.

In regard to when that will apply, it would be great if they could agree on the architecture for the single supervisory mechanism by June. Obviously, however, it will be the back end of this year or into next year before those complex discussions can conclude. Separate from that, if the question of the extension of the maturity applied to Greece is applicable to Portugal, which tabled this, and to Ireland it would be to our benefit as well.

With regard to the sum of €1 billion being saved, this also goes into the question raised by Deputy Boyd Barrett. We have set out our stall as a country that is in a programme with the troika to get our deficit below 3% of GDP by 2015. The borrowing requirement is €12 billion this year, €9 billion next year and €5 billion in 2015. There is no question but that these are challenging times. However, this is about rectifying fundamental problems in our public finances and the economy to get to a point where we can start recruitment programmes again in a more structured way to deal with front-line services.

Deputy Boyd Barrett spoke about Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, who referred to this at the economic affairs committee of the European Parliament yesterday. It is fair to say that since the decision was made, the IBRC has been liquidated, the promissory notes have been replaced by long-term bonds, the first repayment is not due until 2038, Standard & Poor's has changed its view of the country, Irish Life has been sold today - which gives back over €1 billion to the people in respect of what was put in there - and Facebook has announced extra jobs.

I can confirm that the line of investment in here continues to be very strong. Hopefully, in due course, the bank guarantee will go, which will allow banks to be out in the markets themselves. That will also allow greater flexibility for credit to be available for lending to small and medium enterprises which are the backbone of future growth in the economy.

As Deputy Boyd Barrett is aware, we are only in February. We have set out the budgetary programme for 2013, which is challenging for a number of Departments, but it has to be achieved. As we move through the year towards the back end, the Government will set out its position in so far as the budget for 2014 is concerned.

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