Katherine Zappone (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Creighton to the House. Am I correct in saying that Creighton is the Minister of State's name?

I would like to start off where Senator van Turnhout left off to say how much I welcome the work Ireland is doing on the European stage, led by the Taoiseach and the Minister of State's very able self. It is wonderful to see the extraordinary work she is doing for us there.

I also welcome that we are not expected to contribute to the bilateral loans to the IMF. It was helpful to receive clarification of that in the Minister of State's speech. It is crucial that we have agreed closer fiscal integration, with oversight, particularly when it comes to meeting deficit targets. The offering of oversight to our European colleagues should not include oversight of Government decisions on overall budgets and the proportion of public expenditure versus revenue raising measures.

I was happy to hear the Taoiseach raise the re-engineering of bank related debt. Does the Minister of State have any more information on that? Am I right to assume it is largely about a renegotiation of the timing and interest rates?