Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I compliment the Tánaiste on his success in securing a position for Ireland on the UN Human Rights Council. I congratulate him and his Government colleagues on the tremendous effort they are putting into the whole European project at present. I refer particularly to the position they are pursuing in the context of Ireland's need for a healthy budget. The disparate views that emerge within the EU lead me to despair from time to time. Some of the member states in question are in the eurozone and others are not. If those disparate views are ultimately to be accommodated, we will end up with a mishmash of views, opinions and policies that will achieve neither one thing nor the other.

The Chairman and I recently attended a meeting in Brussels that was addressed by Mr. Barroso. He must have repeated the word "solidarity" at least ten times in the course of his speech. If there is one element that is lacking in every issue that affects Europe at present, it is solidarity. I think the Tánaiste will agree with that. Everything he and his colleagues try to do seems to be frustrated after a few days when somebody makes an offhand remark that creates ripples in the pond and is not of a cohesive nature. I would like to draw particular attention to the budget in this regard.

The Tánaiste mentioned the Greek example. It should have been obvious to our betters in the European scene two or three years ago that it was not possible for Greece to emerge from the extent of the burden it was facing in the time allotted at that stage, especially in light of the nature of the Greek economy. It was obvious to many people that it was not possible. Would it not have been better to recognise at that stage that the system needed to be changed and made a little easier for those who were having difficulty?

The last point I want to make is that we do not seem to be progressing in the same direction. Everyone in Europe does not seem to be facing in the same direction. There are those who want less of Europe and those who want more of Europe. There are those who want integration and those who want out. We cannot make progress in such circumstances. If one state of the United States sought to secede from the union - I do not foresee that happening - I do not think the union could continue to be cohesive. It does not work that way. It is a question of unity of purpose.