Taoiseach says bank debt raised at summit

TAOISEACH ENDA Kenny insisted he raised Ireland’s request for relief on its bank debt at last week’s European summit.

This followed a sharp difference of recollection on the issue between Mr Kenny and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams who had earlier attended a briefing by the Taoiseach on the meeting.

Mr Kenny told the Dáil he had referred at the summit “to the challenge faced by the Irish people whereby this country borrowed €63 billion for bank recapitalisation at excessive interest rates before the bailout”.

The Taoiseach said Ireland wanted to get into a position where it could pay off the debt over a longer period and with a very substantial saving for the Irish taxpayer.

Earlier, Mr Adams said Mr Kenny had shared at a briefing with Opposition leaders yesterday morning a letter he had written to European Council president Herman Van Rompuy.

It was a fine letter, which said the issue would be raised at the summit. “Then, this morning, at our briefing, you told us you did not do this, you did not raise it,” Mr Adams said.

“I was wondering: did you forget? Did you leave the letter behind you? Were your tired?”

Accusing Mr Adams of deliberately misinterpreting what he had said at the briefing, Mr Kenny added: “Now if you did not hear that this morning, either you or your adviser do not understand plain English.”

Mr Adams raised the issue again later and said he had taken notes at the meeting. “The Taoiseach came in here and said I misrepresented what he said and I did not,” he added.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the Taoiseach had signed up for a deal without studying it and being aware of its full implications. He asked why Mr Kenny had agreed to push ahead without Britain being on board.

“Did you not see an opportunity to support the British in terms of there being no need for a new treaty?” he asked. “That was our position before the summit, at least as I understood it.”

Mr Martin said the Taoiseach had said in the Dáil on numerous occasions that he did not think there was a need for a new treaty but that an awful lot could be done with existing treaties.

Mr Martin said fiscal rules did not go to the core of solving the euro zone crisis. “It is really how you refinance sovereign debt is the core of the crisis, and the summit has failed to deal with that.”

Mr Kenny said he was not talking about a writedown of sovereign debt, but “a reconstruction of the bank situation in respect of the recapitalisation which had taken place with very high interest rates”.

Mr Kenny said he would be speaking to British prime minister David Cameron later. He said that when Mr Cameron had made his comments at the summit about a protocol to protect the financial services in London, he had suggested there be a pause and a discussion about whether a compromise could be reached.

It was important, he added, that the British government remains central to the EU.