Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank members for their questions. I will take them in the order they were asked.

Regarding the Chairman's question on the review of the European External Action Service, EEAS, it has achieved much despite the youth of the organisation and the difficult circumstances it confronted during its establishment. I understand the Chairman's concern about the service's cost. Like him, I am well familiar with the general concerns that people articulate regarding the cost of any public service. For this reason, the review is a valuable process. We must ensure that, for the amount of resources and number of people involved, it achieves its objectives.

Two areas are important. First, the EEAS supports through complementarity the effort of member states to deliver on the agreed objectives of the EU. Second, it represents those interests that have been agreed by member states and are articulated through European institutions, for example, the Commission. I am certain that the role of the EEAS, which has been good in many respects, can be enhanced once the review has been completed with a view to ensuring value for money. We should all be concerned about the money spent in any public service, be it in Ireland or abroad.

Regarding Turkey and visa liberalisation, Ireland is working hard to support Turkey in its journey through negotiating with the EU. We will participate in those negotiations in a positive way. Turkey and its Government recognise this, given the role that our Government was able to play in opening up the chapter for Turkey during our Presidency.

A common theme raised by a number of members was that of Bosnia-Herzegovina, BiH. The October European Commission report recognised that progress was at a standstill. We need time to evaluate how to proceed, particularly in light of the fact that, as Deputy Byrne mentioned, many of its neighbours in the region have found a way of engaging with the EU in its processes and satisfactorily meeting the benchmarks laid down by the Union and their own governments. Therefore, the issue about BiH is a visible and important one requiring our engagement. However, I must emphasise that ultimate responsibility for the process sits with the home country. A country must be willing to embrace it and take ownership of it. A mantra used in respect of other challenges facing us is often used in this respect, namely, the EU cannot impose solutions on anyone. Similarly, we cannot impose ownership of a process on anyone. I hope that the opportunity to take cognisance of where we are will be grasped within BiH as it will be within Europe and its member states, including Ireland.

I am delighted to hear that the report on the social dimensions of the economic and monetary union, EMU, has been finished. I was a member of the committee during the report's early phases and look forward to reading it. We strongly recommend the inclusion of social indicators within the scoreboard, as we cannot achieve an evaluation of the situation within the Union without considering the social consequences of decisions alongside the economic ones. However, we will continue to emphasise the need for caution about treating such indicators like economic indicators. In other countries, deficits and debt levels have clear spill-over effects on other EU member states, effects that are of a different nature to the spill-over effects picked up by social indicators.

I thank Deputy Dooley for his two questions. I am aware of the comments of Mr. Regling, whom the Deputy acknowledged did some valuable work in Ireland by conducting one of the inquiries into what happened within our banking sector. The Government will continue to emphasise the statement made by the Eurogroup in June setting out the role of the European Stability Mechanism, ESM, in direct bank recapitalisations and making it clear that this must be agreed by all member states on a case-by-case basis. Our Government will continue to pursue such a mechanism as an option for ensuring that we can rebuild our banking system and, importantly, the health of the sovereign.

The Deputy raised a topical point about the role of the Commission post bailout exit. While Ireland remains inside the excessive deficit procedure, EDP, which members will be familiar with, we will continue to be subject to an additional layer of monitoring.

I have always felt that if the challenges which Ireland faced had been relative to Ireland alone, regardless of how bad they were, we would have had the measure of them quickly. Not only did Ireland have to deal with its own intense difficulties but it also had to deal with the confluence of other problems which arose in other member states at or near the same time. This put Ireland in a very vulnerable position. This is the reason we campaigned with the support of Fianna Fáil through the chairmanship of Deputy Dooley for the fiscal governance treaty. We believe that for the euro not only to survive but to be stable and prosper it must be acknowledged that the difficulties being experienced by any one country can have a huge affect on every other country. These types of mechanisms are to ensure that does not happen.

I thank Deputy Eric Byrne for his questions. I take his point in regard to Albania. Ireland is strongly disposed to supporting it on its journey. I have already responded on the issues relating to Bosnia Herzegovina. Deputy Byrne also posed a number of important questions in relation to the Ukraine. I had the privilege of attending the partnership summit in Vilnius, at which these discussions took place. I also attended some of the private meetings in this regard. I also had the privilege of representing Ireland last week at the OSCE conference in the Kiev where the consequences of all this were visible. I took the opportunity of my visit to Kiev to meet with and talk to the protesters in Independence Square, which allowed me to gain a better appraisal of where things stand. We now need to develop a model of association that is not seen by other countries as being mutually exclusive or binary. In other words, we must ensure that countries can further develop their relationships with the European Union in such a way that is not either-or. We need to reflect now on how to move this forward. In doing so, we need to make clear to the Ukrainian Government, as we did last week, that it is its decision to make, while recognising that we must continue to find a way to develop our relationship with the Ukraine. Despite the difficulties being experienced by the Ukraine we expect all sides to be aware of the impartial rule of law and to uphold their responsibilities in that area. Following the developments over the weekend and, conscious of the depth of feeling in the Ukraine in this regard, the coming days and weeks will be a hugely important time for the Ukrainian Government and its people.

Mention was made of the significant role played by Russia, particularly in the discussions which took place in Geneva in regard to the nuclear negotiations of Iran. My response would be to dovetail that situation to the point I made in regard to the Ukrainian situation. We now need to focus on relationships and how best we can work together in the same region. As part of this process, there will be greater direct engagement with the Russian Government and its foreign Minister and the foreign Ministers of the European Union in the near future. It is in the mutual interests of Europe and Russia to have a good relationship and to ensure that the region in between is stable, secure and prosperous. Both parties are aware of the challenges in that regard.

On the question of Slovenia, we are very much aware of the challenges that Slovenia and its people face. It was asked if we should offer advice to Slovenia. I am regularly asked in the context of my work abroad about how Ireland deals with other countries, particularly given where Ireland now stands in terms of the bailout programme. My response always is that every country is different. Therefore, the needs of each economy are different. We are very much aware of the difficulties which a country can experience. In the same way as other countries worked with Ireland we, through the European Union, ECOFIN and the Eurogroup, will support Slovenia in the changes it may need to make. We will use our experience in this regard to try to support it and any other country.

With regard to other conflicts within the European Union, I am very much aware of the level of difficulties being experienced in many member states, particularly those member states that are engaged in neighbourhood or accession policy discussions and negotiations with the EU. The Union at that point is as much a process based on values that hopefully will allow and enable people to resolve their internal difficulties and other difficulties which they may have with other countries. I believe that the accession discussions and neighbourhood policies are important because they put in place a fora that requires that all members of society talk to each other. This is the most important mechanism for dealing with the type of difficulties to which the Deputy referred earlier.

I hope I have responded to all of the questions asked.