Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

While it is desirable to have as many ministerial meetings minuted as possible, taoisigh and Ministers of all parties had informal meetings without notetakers. It would have been impossible for them to carry on their business if this had not been allowed.

As a country, we have benefited from the euro in terms of lower interest rates, an absence of exchange rate speculation and sheer convenience when travelling. We could debate the Minister for Finance's consideration of the applications of some of the Baltic countries to join the euro in January 2007, in particular Lithuania. There is a difficulty about the inflation rate being 0.1% above the limit. We all remember that Italy and Belgium joined the euro with considerable public debts of more than 100% of GDP when they should have been 60%. I hope the latitude shown to a number of older EU states will be shown to the Baltic countries and that Ireland will be on the side that does not adopt too rigid an attitude.

I wish to clarify a matter debated without conclusion on yesterday's Order of Business. I checked the record of Report Stage of the Garda Síochána Bill 2005, Volume No. 180, column No. 2190 of 28 June 2005.

The Fine Gael Party is correct in suggesting, as the Minister stated himself, that he had originally provided for a 12-month moratorium between the Bill being brought into effect and the possibility of a reserve being created. However, Deputy Jim O'Keeffe argued that the proposal was surplus to requirements——