Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Secretary General and the officials and I wish them well for the next five months with what is an intensive schedule. We are now five years into the economic crisis and I have lost count of the number of orientation debates held. When will Europe get its act together on how serious this crisis is for business? We are focusing our Presidency on unemployment and employment creation, as did previous presidencies. This is the context for my questions. We should not be having orientation debates five years into this. We should have answers and, at this stage in 2013, we should also have a backup plan for if these answers do not work. Unemployment is the biggest issue facing Europe, in particular youth unemployment. We have nice fluffy flags flying in Presidency capitals which then move to the next capital, but we are not putting a dent in the figures while we keep stating it is a key issue.

Is the figure of €2.5 billion for COSME agreed or is it still being negotiated as part of the multi-annual framework? What does COSME mean for a typical SME? How will it help a typical owner-manager, never mind a big corporation, to keep his or her business open, and provide new business and employment opportunities and breaks to employ people? Unless it means something to business people on the street, it is European talk which does not really mean anything.