Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

For somebody who aspires to the leadership of her party and does not believe at all in Europe, Deputy McDonald makes a long speech about a lot of issues. She asked me what happened in respect of the decision on the bailout exit. The Government made a clear, precise and courageous decision, arising from the sacrifices made by the Irish people in recent years, about the formal closure of the bailout programme in which this country has been involved. That is what happened.

Before the Minister for Finance went to the ECOFIN meeting, where there were some comments about the position of Spain and what it might do, the Government, on behalf of the Irish people, looked at the options, of which there were three. First, we could leave with a precautionary credit from the EU-IMF; second, we could leave with a precautionary credit line from the IMF; or, third, we could let the programme formally end without seeking any precautionary credit line. The Cabinet discussed these options and made a decision, not as a result of any emergency meeting, not as a result of any telephone calls from certain people and not as a result of pressure, but at the right time, making the right decision based on the information available to us and taking into account the circumstances in which the country finds itself. Those circumstances were very much improved from what was inherited just two and a half years before. Specifically, the National Treasury Management Agency was able to go back into the international markets and able to do so very strongly, selling Irish bonds at less than 4% - down from 15% two and a half years before. Exports are running at an all-time high and a buffer zone of more than €20 billion has already been built up by the NTMA. Furthermore, the €500 billion backstop available to all other eurozone countries is likewise available to Ireland.

Those were the circumstances in which we made our decision. There were no pressurising telephone calls. A very clear decision was made by the Government, on the recommendation of the Minister for Finance, and the Tánaiste and I having discussed these matters in Brussels, Frankfurt, Washington and with other leaders on different political occasions.

The Deputy made several assertions about sovereignty. The fact of the matter is that on 16 December, the barrier that surrounded Ireland in terms of its bailout programme will no longer be there. Does that restore our full economic sovereignty? No more than any other eurozone country, we are subject to the two-pack and six-pack requirements and will comply with those regulations. The bailout programme meant 12 quarterly, deeply analytical and deeply invasive visits from troika personnel in order that the conditions with which Ireland was required to comply would be fulfilled. Those conditions were fulfilled. The Deputy observed that the troika will continue to pay twice yearly visits for a considerable period. Every country in the eurozone will be subject to a regular visit. Ireland, because we are emerging from a bailout programme, will have a second, as will other countries in the same position.

For the time ahead there is greater flexibility for the Government and, therefore, for our country in terms of what we do. We have set out a programme to have our deficit below 3% by 2015. We will continue that momentum.

We will continue to take decisions based on being more competitive and, as I have said on many occasions, on opening the doors of opportunity for job opportunities to be created. While it does not put us in a place where we have a budgetary surplus, it does give us the opportunity to have a small primary surplus this year and to start to reduce the scale of our debt, which became so big over the years that the rating is not as strong as we would like. That is why, on exiting the bailout programme, discussions are already taking place between Department of Finance officials and German finance ministry officials about being associated with and being part of a structure dealing with the Germany AAA-rated development bank for access to credit for small and medium enterprises. That is a positive signal.

It is a case of the Government coming to a decision that it was the right time for Ireland, that it was the right decision to make and then going ahead and making it clearly. I am pleased that independent objective reports, comments made publicly by the Governor of the Central Bank, comments made publicly by the director of the National Treasury Management Agency and reflections by the ratings agencies, interested business people and investors strongly support the decision.

We hope to move on now and have Europe make strong and clear decisions in different countries. Our remit is to fix our public finances and get our people back to work. These are the two essential focuses of the Government and will remain so for the future.

It is not a case of other countries having to approve our budget before it is dealt with next October. Clearly, under the bailout programme Ireland was required to give draft budgets to the countries which were lending money to Ireland. No more than any other eurozone country, we have signed on to the two-pack and six-pack regulations and conditions, as have all the other countries. However, because we are emerging from a programme there will be a second visit here once every six months. That applies to all other countries that have conditions or a bailout programme applied to them as well.

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