John Crown (Independent)

It is extraordinarily unsatisfactory, despite my multiple entreaties. I will not play the stunt of proposing an amendment to the Order of Business to ask the Taoiseach to come to the House. However, at this stage it is essential that he come to the House.

The second Mayo parliamentarian is the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs, Deputy Lucinda Creighton. On a number of occasions I have asked for clarification from the Minister of State on a particular issue. She came to the House previously but due to time constraints, my question was not answered. I hope I can ask the Leader to convey my questions to the Minister of State. How is it proposed that a structural deficit will be calculated for the purposes of the proposed fiscal pact? There is something far short of unanimity among the economics community on the question of how it is calculated. I would like to know whether it is the Minister of State's speculative or considered opinion, or that of the fiscal quadrumvirate that is running the Government, that the financial catastrophe would have been averted if this pact had been in place in the late 1990s or the early 2000s. Would it have made any difference?

I will conclude by mentioning in passing that I would like the Leader to ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade whether the Government can clarify what interventions it has made in the case of Pastor Nadarkhani in Iran, who is still on death row under sentence of death for the crime of being a Christian.