Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Nagarajan and his colleagues. I found the document to be an instrument of despair. Page 9 sets out that we added 2 million to the number of unemployed in Europe in the last 12 months. I see the same old clichés about more committees, waffle and quangos, while nothing is done to address the basic problem.

The design faults in the euro must be addressed. It has been a disaster for Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Spain and Italy. As Brussels made the initial mistakes, it is not willing to address them. We must tell our visitors that this country is at the end of its tether about the way it is being treated and there will be a sizeable interest in Mr. Cameron's approach. Brussels should look in the mirror and see what a disaster it has been. Why does it continue to reheat failed policies from the past? Mr. Nagarajan mentioned the role of government; it is already 50% of GDP, which the EU encouraged. That must be looked at. Can economies survive with such large bureaucracies weighing them down and a currency design for which we are all paying the price? No one in Brussels appears to be willing to pay any price for the faults of the currency. The document refers to a compact for growth and jobs, a two-pack, a six-pack, a Stability and Growth Pact and a European systemic risk board. It just goes on and on. After these seminars take place, more waffle emerges. I see no economic content at all. The worst happens when Commission and Irish bureaucrats meet. We cannot get the fiscal council the full range of responsibilities the Commission wanted. If one reads the debate on the Finance Bill in the Seanad, one sees that the Department of Finance would not let the fiscal council look at things.

Mr. Nagarajan referred to taking lower income people out of the tax net. We did that for years, but Brussels's recovery policy put them all back in through the universal social charge. The first thing we need is a mea culpa from Brussels for what has been done to 25 million people. It should not think that because we have not set fire to buildings, unlike the Greeks, Irish people are not really resentful of what is being done in the name of the euro. Brussels must stop publishing pages and pages of clichés. They are not helping. We have unemployed graduates. The unemployment rate among PhD and master's degree graduates is 17.5%. It is 7% among bachelor's degree graduates. There is no evidence that research and development measures will lead to any return although I gather the Government has commissioned a study. On infrastructure, we have empty motorways, airports and sea ports. Infrastructure is not the answer. This is a sign that people at the centre have not yet woken up to the disasters that we have had in adding 2 million to Europe's unemployment figures. Brussels should stop recruiting new countries to the euro. Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy should be allowed to leave. I cannot see how they will recover without an exchange rate and devaluation. There is not enough appetite in Germany for the level of fiscal federalism the model set out requires.

There is a lack of urgency and engagement with people who have really suffered. We have been conducting the experiment and blown up the laboratory. To suggest tweaks here and there will not work. In the context of public administration, it is recommended that we improve judicial systems. We cannot really blame judges when bankers and senior civil servants destroyed the European economy. Judges just wear wigs. Many irrelevancies are included in this document which neglects the fact that a small group of people in banks and public administration destroyed a large part of the European economy. Please, confront them with their incompetence. We could have artificial hope, of which there has been a great deal, but there is nothing here to address the 15% unemployment rate we have in Ireland. The mass emigration of our young people is to countries outside Europe. They do not see much future in it and are heading off to Canada and New Zealand.

Europe had better get its act together. There is no personal animosity in my points, but as an institution Brussels has failed. This document illustrates that.