Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

During his address to the Seanad yesterday, the Taoiseach signalled significant progress on a number of fronts. I believe this augurs well for our Presidency of the EU and his leadership of it next year. In my view the most important issue he raised was breaking the vicious circle between banks and sovereigns. He negotiated this during the most recent summit. This is a significant achievement. I hope the Minister for Finance will be able to report on the detail of our further progress by October.

I agree fully with Senator Bacik's view on the banking inquiry that I referred to yesterday. I support her call to the Leader, that if matters have not been decided in the meantime, on our return we would immediately work on the terms of reference, the format and structure, how it should proceed and the timeframe. We could very usefully deal with the subject on resumption in early September, if it has not been decided in the meantime.