Dan Boyle (Green Party)

I too wish to be associated with the vote of congratulations to Senator Pearse Doherty and to all those who stood in the Donegal South-West by-election. In the times we live in, we should express our gratitude to everyone who puts their name on a ballot paper and seeks to engage with the public, who are obviously angry, disappointed and disillusioned, and react accordingly.

With regard to the IMF-EU package and the all-day debate we will have on Thursday, it is necessary that we devote as much time as possible to this. I accept the point made by Senator Alex White that this must be accompanied by suitable documentation in regard to what exactly we are debating. I hope the focus of the debate will be not only on whether this is or a good or bad deal, or whether it is right or wrong for it to be accepted, but also on clear ideas as to what the current alternatives are, which is at the heart of the agreement that has been reached. It will be for others to argue those points on Thursday.

I also ask that Members emphasise that those negotiations were undertaken on behalf of the State, and the people undertaking them were officers of the State, including the Governor of the Central Bank, the Secretary General of the Department of Finance and the head of the National Treasury Management Agency. To try to bring down the negotiations to a political context is unfair to those people, in particular, and the job they were doing on behalf of the country.