Jim Higgins (Fine Gael)

I support the call by the Fine Gael leader, Senator Brian Hayes, and by Senators O'Toole and Norris for an immediate debate on the exemption offered to France and Germany yesterday by their fellow Ministers for Finance, which I cannot understand. France and Germany were supposed to be our role models in terms of our financial and economic performance and of qualifying. I remember representing Ireland at a Finance Ministers' meeting in Versailles during discussions on EMU and I remember Germany's hostility to Ireland's qualification on the basis that we did not meet the criteria.