Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Second, we succeeded in negotiating the end of the promissory note payment and the liquidation of Anglo Irish Bank, or the IBRC as it had then become.

Third, we succeeded in persuading our European partners to make a significant policy decision in June 2012 on the separation of bank and sovereign debt. Ireland's situation was specifically referenced in that decision because Ireland had done its recapitalisation before the new European mechanisms were put in place, including the ideas around banking union and the ESM.

Following that, we pressed ahead with implementing the banking union and quite an amount of work was done on that in the course of our EU Presidency. The issue will be discussed at the European Council again tomorrow. In order to make Ireland's position absolutely clear, the Taoiseach has written to President Van Rompuy and the other 27 EU heads of state and government. He has made it clear that we want delivery on the June 2012 agreement.

All the previous negotiations, which we successfully concluded to the benefit of the Irish taxpayer, were conducted on the basis that we would not state our negotiating position publicly. It would be unwise and we will not do so in this situation either, other than to say that we are determined to get the best outcome for the Irish taxpayer. We have some form on this because on all the previous occasions when we had major negotiations to conduct, we succeeded in getting a satisfactory outcome for the Irish taxpayer. It was an outcome which went beyond the most pessimistic expectations that were often expressed in this House.

See this speech in context