Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is nearly 12 months since the Taoiseach returned to the Dáil announcing a seismic shift, a game changer. He told us he had secured the separation of sovereign debt from banking debt and that our banks would be recapitalised retrospectively. However, 12 months on, we are no clearer on how much of the €30 billion of taxpayers' money which the Government and its Fianna Fáil predecessors put into the pillar banks will be returned. Will this issue be considered at the Council meeting?

Will the Council discuss the situation in Cyprus and the impact the bailout programme is having on the people and economy of that state? The European Union monumentally mishandled the situation in Cyprus, to the great cost of its people. The Taoiseach raised serious question marks about how further bank recapitalisation might be handled in this or other states.

I note the EU budget or the multi-annual financial framework does not form part of the European Council agenda. Perhaps the Taoiseach might give us some sense of whether the budget will be agreed under the auspices and during the term of the Irish Presidency. Is there a danger that programmes funded from the EU budget such as the PEACE programme will experience delays in funding which may have an impact on projects to be delivered? The Taoiseach will know that there are many sections of society dependent on the EU budget, particularly in rural Ireland. Farmers and others who benefit from rural development programmes need to be assured that these schemes will be remain in place. We all know farmers have been under serious pressure in recent weeks and months owing to the ongoing fodder crisis and they estimate the crisis may cost as much as €900 million. Has the Government raised the possibility of providing support from the EU Solidarity Fund to support the farming community through the crisis? The Commission has moved to put in place transition measures for direct payments in 2014 and 2015, which is to be welcomed.

As the Taoiseach detailed, this week’s European Council is focused on tax policy, with a particular focus on how to improve the efficiency of tax collection and how best to tackle tax evasion and fraud. As we discussed earlier, there has been a degree of controversy, particularly in Britain in recent weeks, about tax avoidance by large US multinationals such as Google, Amazon and Starbucks. Last night, it emerged at a US Senate hearing that Apple had negotiated a special corporation tax rate of 2% or less here in this State.

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