Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Again, I go back to the point that the Government seems to have taken its foot off the pedal in regard to this measure. There was a window of opportunity when Spain was in crisis, which was when this was agreed. I believe many of the European leaders would not have wanted it, but that was when we should have stuck the ball in the net. Now, 17 months further on, it will be a harder job for the Minister and the Government to deliver the commitment given, although I fully support their efforts.

Can the Minister elaborate on what efforts are being made? The Minister did not raise the issue at the ECOFIN or Eurogroup meetings, although the issue of the pecking order was discussed at ECOFIN. When was the last time the Minister raised the issue at a formal meeting of ECOFIN and the Eurogroup? What has been the response of his counterparts at those meetings? For example, when we met with the troika recently, the ECB president did not talk about recapitalisation being off the agenda. It is on the agenda. What he said was that retroactive application of the instrument was off the agenda. That is where the difficulty lies, due to political circumstances and all the rest. When was the last time the Minister raised the issue of retroactive recapitalisation for Ireland, given that the Taoiseach took it upon himself to write to every EU leader in the past three weeks saying that the fulfilment of this commitment was required in order for us to get back into the markets sustainably after the troika exit?

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