Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

What exactly is Ireland looking for in terms of the debt situation and the breaking of the link between sovereign and financial sector debt?

Yesterday my party revealed letters from Mario Draghi to our finance spokesperson, Deputy Michael McGrath. Essentially, Mr. Draghi said that he does not agree with the Government's claim that everything is progressing fine with Ireland's banks. If one reads his letter, in response to Deputy McGrath, one sees that he is distancing himself significantly from the Central Bank's assessment of the capital adequacy of our banks. This followed a letter we wrote to him in the aftermath of his comments to the effect that the impaired loans in our banks needed swift and direct action. He implies in his correspondence that further capitalisation may be required. Can the Taoiseach explain how that sits with the Minister for Finance's claims, as well as his own claims, that Ireland will be reimbursed retrospectively for past recapitalisation. Furthermore, the banking union will provide enough money to cover less than 1% of the capital base of the covered banks. Does the Taoiseach believe that is adequate? Is he happy with that? Does he believe it is an adequate amount? I think it is ridiculously low and cannot, in any shape or form, be considered adequate in terms of a resolution mechanism into the future.

On the issue of Ukraine, I welcome the decision to go to stage three sanctions. Russia's behaviour effectively partitions a former colony and that cannot be let stand with what I consider to be very weak measures, diplomatically. I get the sense that the United States is leading the charge and that the European Union is divided between those who want tougher sanctions and those who want to delay the imposition of same for various economic reasons. The Taoiseach's comments about trade some moments ago suggest that the Russian ambassador's public warnings to the Government last week are hitting home already. What position did we take at the European Council meeting? Did we support those who were looking for stronger sanctions, those who advocated holding on and waiting or did we just wait for a final agreement to emerge and jump on that particular line? We did not take any public stand on it, to the best of my knowledge.

The Taoiseach referred to the issue of surveillance in his reply. At the time of December's European Council meeting, the bugging of European governments was a very big issue. Much of that surveillance was carried out by the British facility in GCHQ. Other countries have been far more direct than us in asking about bugging of conversations and in demanding transparency from the United States and others. Have we done the same and specifically, has the Taoiseach asked the British Prime Minister whether the British Government bugged Irish communications during sensitive negotiations on Northern Ireland? Did the Taoiseach have that discussion with David Cameron?

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