Mr. Nat O'Connor:

I thank the Chairman and the committee for the invitation to attend today's meeting. I welcome the launch of a national debate on the future of the EU and Ireland's place in it. TASC is an independent progressive think tank whose core focus is economic equality and democratic accountability. Both of those concerns come together in the question of how we and our European partners are to govern the European economy through treaties, institutions and growing harmonisation of economic and social policy. The structure of the economic and monetary union is at the heart of that question.

I will ask our economist, Mr. Tom McDonnell, to make a short presentation on some of the immediate issues to do with economic and monetary union, which is at the heart of the current debate about where Europe is going and Ireland's place in Europe.