Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I assure Deputy Boyd Barrett that there is no privileged access in this regard. I made the point to Deputy Higgins that the Clearing House Group dealing with the IFSC has played an important role over the last 20 years or more. It is not a question of privileged access. It is able to discuss the expansion of the industry, which has grown from employing very small numbers to employing more than 33,000 people at present. I think Deputy Boyd Barrett will agree that these jobs make an important contribution. This is a mobile industry, as the Deputy is aware, so it is in Ireland's interest to continuously monitor the issues that affect the financial services sector. That is why the Clearing House Group meets as representatives of the industry. I have met them on two or three occasions. It is important to hear their views. As I said to Deputy Higgins in response to the suggestion that this constitutes privileged access, any citizen in the country can access the Government directly by meeting Ministers. The Deputy is aware that this happens on a regular basis.

Clearly, Cyprus is in a very different position from Ireland. It is now entering a very difficult and challenging programme, whereas we are exiting our programme. Our banks have been recapitalised. The Minister for Finance has made the Government's attitude towards small and large depositors in this country perfectly clear. The measures in the Cypriot programme reflect the disproportionate size of the banking sector in relation to the Cypriot economy as a whole. The nature of the liabilities in this case become clear when one considers that the Cypriot banking sector is eight times the size of the Cypriot economy.

I am sure the Deputy can empathise with the distraught citizens of Cyprus in regard to the decisions taken, whereby banks have been closed and are still closed, and capital controls will apply in respect of ATM machines, albeit for a limited period. This country is in a very different position from Cyprus. Clearly, it is in the interests of Europe that there be stability and understanding of the challenges that any country faces in having to deal with a situation on the scale of what Cyprus is now having to deal with.

The issue here is that the decision made on 29 June last to break the link between sovereign and bank debt was made by the European Council. That decision stands and has not been altered by the comments of anybody since then. Because that is so, that decision leading to the possibility of recapitalisation by the ESM is important because Ireland was mentioned specifically in that decision. That is now the focus of the discussions at the Eurogroup in regard to single supervisory mechanisms leading to banking union, and our challenge is to retrieve as much as we can for the taxpayer out of that proposition. It will, of course, have to define what legacy assets are, and that is part of the nature of the discussions that will take place.

In Ireland's case, this is now an historic fact that is over but not done with in terms of our people. That is why it is necessary that we continue to focus on the fundamental issue of that decision and on the fact Ireland was specifically mentioned and had its particular and unique circumstances referred to by both the French President and the German Chancellor in regard to their being taken into account as part of those discussions. There is obviously now a very difficult position for the citizens of Cyprus but, as I said, they are beginning to enter a programme and a very difficult challenge whereas Ireland is about to exit its programme, hopefully, by the end of this year and return fully to the bond markets next year.

The part played by the IFSC in our economy and the position about transparency, openness and accountability is there for all to see in regard to the publication of the minutes, and that will continue. As I said, I believe I have met with the IFSC Clearing House Group twice over the past 18 months or so and will continue to meet and engage with it as might be appropriate.

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