Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Dooley raises the interesting question as to whether a small state like Ireland should be rocking the boat. The problem with rocking a boat is that it makes one seasick. I prefer to think in terms of helping to steer the boat. That is the space we are in. At an organisational level, when we take on the Presidency of the European Union at the beginning of next year we will be in that position. We have done much preparation for the Presidency. The Taoiseach and I, with about ten other Ministers, will be meeting the EU Commission on 3 and 4 October to have a full discussion about the Presidency and our objectives during that period. There will be visits to Ireland by Commissioners and by senior figures from EU institutions and the committees of the European Parliament.

With regard to whether we should seek a larger budget, we must take a realistic approach to the EU budget. Most member states, including ourselves, are making budgetary adjustments. It is understandable that member states, particularly those who are big contributors to the EU budget, would say that if they are making big adjustments to their own budgets the European Union should, perhaps, adjust its budget also. That is the debate that is taking place. We can argue that all member states are interdependent and that the economic recovery of individual member states is entirely bound up with the recovery of the European Union.

Deputy Crowe made a fair criticism. We often talk about European Union issues in a unique eurospeak language, much of which is institutional and technical. We must be clear about what we are trying to achieve. We are trying to achieve employment, good economic conditions and a good standard of living for people. We also want to set a threshold of decency below which we will not go. Some people describe this as the social Europe idea. It means the maintenance of good working conditions and good environmental standards.

To do all of that we must pay our way. The difficulty with meeting targets is that the targets are not arbitrary. The one thing we learned during the boom years is that we cannot, or should not, spend what we do not have. If one tries to spend what one does not have one gets into a huge amount of trouble, as we have found out to our cost. If the country is borrowing three euro of every ten we spend, there is no point in saying we do not want to meet the targets. We cannot go on fooling ourselves forever. We do have to meet the targets, not to please someone else but because it is the sensible thing to do. We must make our finances sustainable and pay our way in the world. That is bound up with what we want to do with regard to the European budget.

This brings me back to Deputy Dooley's question. We must support the Europe 2020 strategy for jobs and growth while reflecting current budgetary consolidation imperatives in member states. Ireland seeks to ensure that adequate funding is available for investment in economic growth and the creation of employment, and that countries in our situation, especially in relation to unemployment, can access all EU growth enhancement programmes. Ireland is, therefore, strongly supporting the Cypriot Presidency in its efforts to finalise agreement on the European budget by the end of 2012.

Deputy Paschal Donohoe raised a number of questions, some of which were also referred to by Deputies Crowe and Keaveney. The situation in Syria is appalling. At the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Cyprus the weekend before last we received an update on the situation in Syria. The degree to which Syrian people are being killed is truly shocking. There have been repeated attempts to make progress. We saw the attempts by Kofi Annan and the United Nations, and there have been more recent efforts. The inability of the UN Security Council to agree on a robust resolution, particularly because of the positions of Russia and China, is an issue. The European Union has imposed sanctions on the Syrian regime. We discussed those in Cyprus and we will be returning to that discussion. I will be attending the UN General Assembly. During that week, I will meet the UN Secretary General and the crisis in Syria will be among the issues we will discuss. Ireland, and the European Union, are taking an active role. At EU level, we will shortly have a meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister. I hope to have an opportunity to meet him when I am in New York at the General Assembly and to discuss Syria with him.