Last June, following the statement issued at the end of the European Council meeting, the Taoiseach and Government colleagues trumpeted the outcome as being a game changer for this country. We were led to believe that the decision to allow for the direct recapitalisation of Spanish banks without placing the burden on the shoulders of the Spanish people had positive benefits for the Irish people and that the agreement would be applied to Ireland retrospectively. It was only to be a matter of by how much our burden would be lifted, not if it would be lifted.

Four months on, the Taoiseach is back in Brussels. He has been there a number of times since. He recently took almost all of his Cabinet colleagues to meet the Commission. Unfortunately, there has been no progress on a comprehensive deal on bank debt for Ireland. The lack of action in the intervening period by the Government has allowed the momentum to be lost. A dangerous vacuum has developed. Unfortunately, it has been filled by the finance Ministers of Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, who have put an entirely different interpretation on the outcome of the June summit than that which was presented by the Government.

Tough talk at home and silence where it matters has left Ireland without a deal as we face into another exceedingly difficult budget. Resolute action is necessary. The Taoiseach needs to be heard in Brussels as well as in Belmullet and in Berlin as well as in Ballyhaunis.

It is a good script. The joke department wrote it.

The Taoiseach is representing Ireland at the negotiating table in Brussels today. What is he seeking? In light of the statement of the three finance Ministers, is he asking for clarity concerning whether his understanding of the June summit is correct and still stands?

Will the Deputy distribute his script?

Quiet, please.

Is he asking for a timeline for the conclusion of a deal on Ireland's bank debt? If so, what is it that we are seeking in that regard?

Fianna Fáil is back.

I thank the Deputy for his question. Incidentally, the Taoiseach is the only one of the 27 leaders of the EU member states who had his profile on the front cover of the European edition of Time magazine.

It was Time magazine by the way, Deputy Mattie McGrath.

Maybe we will settle down, please.

It should have been the front of The Beano.

Fianna Fáil should remember that its Taoiseach was on the front page for other reasons.

Time sold out in Belmullet.

Fianna Fáil will never have to worry about that again.

The Deputies have had their say.

Many of the Deputies may laugh, but I assure them that the other Heads of Government, some of them from substantially sized countries, would give their right eyes for that kind of recognition.

Indeed.

The people of Ireland would give their right eyes for a deal.

It would be better than Fianna Fáil's deal.

People cannot eat a magazine for breakfast.

The Taoiseach will wave it around the meeting room today.

Deputies, please.

One would not know which one was speaking.

Excuse me, but there is a time limit on Leaders' Questions. Please allow the Minister to respond to Deputy Dooley.

The Taoiseach is meeting the other Heads of Government from his political family, the European People's Party, EPP, and the Tánaiste is likewise meeting our political family in Europe, the Party of European Socialists, PES. At that meeting, President Hollande of France among other socialist leaders will be preparing politically for the Council meeting later today. My understanding is that they will be confirming that the decision they took on 29 June will be upheld, the details relating to that decision will be fully explored, the recognition contained in the communiqué of that decision in respect of Ireland will be vindicated and confirmed and all of the necessary detail surrounding the decision's implementation will continue to make progress.

The three finance Ministers, in particular the German Minister, are facing into election periods. They made a statement on their interpretation of a particular agreement. The finance Ministers did not attend the June meeting and will not attend today's meeting. The Heads of Government will. In recent weeks, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and the Tánaiste have visited Berlin, Paris and the capital cities of the larger countries to press Ireland's case and get recognition of the necessity of applying the deal agreed in principle at the June Council to Ireland.

I am glad that the Minister raised the Time magazine issue. Since June, the Taoiseach has spent more time on a lap of honour congratulating himself on having Ireland included in the text without making any real effort to work with the leaders of the other countries. He has not met a single leader in the intervening period.

How would the Deputy know?

I would have preferred it had he toured the capitals of Europe in an attempt to flesh out the deal instead of running around the world's media organisations in the hope that they might have a spare front page at a dead time of the year so that he might present it as a major achievement for Ireland.

The Government was elected on a promise of burning bondholders and removing the burden of bank debt from the shoulders of the Irish people. It has singularly failed to date.

The Minister knows about that as he made certain promises on third level fees and grants.

Is there a supplementary question?

Sadly, third level students are now starting to find out about those. Since the June summit, the Government has also sought to add to the confusion surrounding the deal. It has tried to confuse the issue of promissory notes with the deal supposedly achieved in June.

What is the Deputy's supplementary question?

I have a minute to put my supplementary question and the Ceann Comhairle might allow me to do so.

He is not sure.

The Deputy's time is up.

Is the Government still seeking a deal on Ireland's bank debt, as outlined in June? Is it holding out in the hope that the promissory note process under way well before June will somehow be resolved, as the interest issue was resolved? The Government will go on another lap of honour, and perhaps the Taoiseach will be on the front of Vanity Fair the next time.

The Deputy would know much about that.

If I was representing the Fianna Fáil Party, I would not be referring to a "lap of honour". This House can long remember the long extended lap by that party. It was longer than Frank Sinatra's last concert.

Here we go.

The Minister is part of the Government. It is about time it took responsibility

Remember Bertie.

We will not take responsibility for Fianna Fáil's work.

We had the long lap of honour for Bertie and a hand-over in slow motion while this economy was going down the tubes.

Hear, hear.

Kicking Fianna Fáil helped you going into the election.

The Deputies are all suffering from amnesia.

We are not at a county council meeting. Deputies should settle down. Deputy Dooley asked a question and is getting an answer, although he might not like it.

The Deputy referred to a lap of honour twice. I am reminding him of how-----

I was talking about this Government's actions.

-----Micawber this was, all the way to Clara.

Will the Minister do a lap of honour on College Green?

With regard to the question-----

Sign a petition.

-----we are continuing to negotiate the stringent components of the memorandum of understanding on which the previous Government signed off and which this House supported.

That has nothing to do with it.

It is attached to the name of the Irish republic. Fianna Fáil claimed we would not be able to negotiate components of that memorandum of understanding but we have succeeded in so doing. We will continue to do so. It is not easy and the euro crisis has been ongoing for more than three years.

It will be longer.

We are trying to convince those forces that it is in everybody's interest that the Irish get the kind of deal that other member states have been privy to as we were the first over the line. That is why the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach, together with our political families in Europe, of which no other parties in this House are members-----

A dysfunctional family.

We will get their political support and make progress at this Council. Nobody can say what the extent of the progress will be but I know it will go in the right direction.

Where is the game change?