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

The length of the Taoiseach's reply reflects the difficulty in answering 34 questions in one go. Such a number of questions creates logistical issues and many of these questions were tabled as long as three or four months ago, perhaps even six months ago in some cases. Question No. 1 on immigrants from Africa and the whole migration crisis was tabled when that issue was at its peak and families were travelling across the Mediterranean to seek refuge from war on European soil. Since then, Europe has witnessed the appalling vista of families leaving war-torn Syria, with enormous consequences for instability across the Middle East and creating huge issues for Europe.

I pay tribute to the members of the Irish Navy for their outstanding work, their bravery and their courage in saving hundreds and hundreds of lives. They have spent many months away from their families on behalf of the State and they have done us proud. Can the Taoiseach confirm whether the Irish Navy's time on that mission will be extended? Will additional allowances for members of the Navy on those expeditions now be paid out? The Government has been very quick to bask in the significant afterglow of their achievements but people would like to see a concrete manifestation of that in terms of the claims that have gone in.

After years of an unprecedented financial and economic crisis, this is without question the largest humanitarian crisis faced by the European Union since it was formed. Can the Taoiseach outline the number of migrants Ireland will now accommodate from war-torn areas? There has been a lot of hype and publicity and people have spoken in terms of thousands of migrants. Germany received up to 1 million migrants during the summer. Ireland received approximately 100 at the beginning of the year and we are to take in a further 100 by the end of December. Comparing those figures with the headlines makes a mockery of all the hype we have heard over the past number of months. We need a realistic framework and some degree of certainty as to what will actually happen in the next 12 months. Are we really only talking about 200 migrants next year in addition to the 200 this year, or is there a schedule to help people fleeing war-torn areas, specifically the horrors of the Syrian conflict? I commend the efforts that have been made to broker a peace agreement in Syria but we must never forget what Assad has done to his own people, particularly in the most recent bombing campaigns which were quite horrific.

In the context of Question No. 2, the Greek leader, Alex Tsipras, was elected and the Taoiseach extended his congratulations to him. He said he was looking forward to working with him but I hope the Taoiseach took the opportunity to apologise for publicly lecturing him and telling him we did not have to increase taxes or VAT to bring down our deficit. That was clearly not true and was one of the Taoiseach's fables, one of the many stories he makes up from time to time. Many economists were surprised and tweeted accordingly when the Taoiseach gave Mr. Tsipras his advice so I hope the Taoiseach put his comments in context when he spoke to Mr. Tsipras. Has the Taoiseach met Mr. Tsipras since his election?

Youth unemployment is still very high in Greece, as it is in Ireland where 20.6% of 15 to 25 year olds are without jobs, according to the September CSO figures. The PricewaterhouseCoopers report on youth unemployment in Ireland, published today, does not make for pleasant reading either. PricewaterhouseCoopers found that Ireland was still in the bottom rankings of the OECD in how we are tackling youth unemployment. Was youth unemployment dealt with at European Council level and in the meetings covered by this series of questions? Is the Taoiseach satisfied that the EU, on a pan-European basis, is doing enough to deal with youth unemployment? It is still very high in Ireland, Greece, Spain and the United Kingdom. We compare very badly indeed with Germany, Switzerland and Austria within the OECD framework.

In Question No. 31, I asked whether the Taoiseach had been speaking with the Chancellor, Angela Merkel, recently and if he would make a statement on the matter. He was very supportive of the Chancellor in her attacks on Greece and in German intransigence towards Greece.

Did the Taoiseach speak to her about his claim that the Army would be needed to guard Ireland's ATMs in 2011? If he met her recently, I presume he met her at the European People's Party meeting. At that meeting he spoke to a European audience and said:

The Governor told me, it looks like this weekend, a few years ago, you’ll have to put the Army around the banks and around the ATM machines [he used his hands and everything to graphically illustrate what was going to happen] and introduce capital controls like they had in Cyprus. So we’ve pulled back from that brink.

The Taoiseach was subsequently interviewed and was asked when it happened. He said, "shortly after coming into office", which was in 2011. It is not the euro crisis of 2012 which was about Italy having difficulties or the bigger countries being an issue and Europe not being in a position to backstop any implosion or difficulties in terms of the bigger European Union countries.

The Taoiseach made those remarks very much in an exclusively Irish context and he spoke about a very specific meeting with the Governor where he said the Army would be needed. He came in on a Wednesday and he said, "You know, by Friday you might need the Army." I think the Taoiseach let the Irish people down when he said that to a European audience. The Irish people never needed an army to restrain them at any stage of the financial crisis. An army is not needed to guard ATMs; they only need to be switched off.

The bank guarantee had been agreed prior to that, as had the troika deal which guaranteed moneys for three years to the Exchequer and to the banks. That is why many people have been scratching their heads over the Taoiseach's remarks. The banks and the sovereign were funded in 2011 - all that had been agreed. When the Government came into office, the troika deal was done and dusted. The guarantee was in place and the Government carried on with the guarantee, bondholders were not burned and so on.

There is no context for this alleged specific conversation between the Governor of the Central Bank in 2011 or in an exclusively Irish context, which is how the Taoiseach pitched it to his audience. He pitched it very much in an Irish context. Subsequently, I believe the story has been reinvented and to get the Taoiseach off the hook, people are now talking about the euro crisis of 2012, as if that was the context for his remarks.

When he was interviewed afterwards, he said, I think, that there was no specific conversation between him and the Governor on this issue. He can correct me if I am wrong in that. I read afterwards that there were denials that there was any specific briefing to the Taoiseach by the Governor regarding the Army.

Sources in the Department of Defence and the Central Bank are puzzled by the Taoiseach's remarks. I do not know about the audience in Europe. I do not know if the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, believed him. Did she say she believed him when he said that to the audience? Did she actually believe that in 2011, the Army would be called in that weekend? Did he alert her at the time when the Governor told him that we would need to call in the Army that weekend? Did he telephone her colleagues in Europe to advise that we were facing a crisis?

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