Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will take guidance from the Chair and start with his question. I thank the members for their detailed questions, and if I do not cover everything I would be happy to go through individual questions. The Chairman's question goes to the core of discussions across the Continent, and he is correct that Italian Prime Minister Renzi has addressed the matter. It concerns the question of what flexibility exists within existing treaties with respect to capital investment, stimulus and the Stability and Growth Pact, including any preventative arms.

We believe there is sufficient flexibility to accommodate additional investment spending. Some member states are very hawkish in this regard, and it is quite a public debate. There is provision within the rules for an extension to the deadline when correcting excessive deficits, provided a member state has undertaken the required amount of consolidation. We also feel very strongly that public spending differs completely from day-to-day expenditure. We know it is mostly accepted by economists that this gives rise to greater growth within member states.

The argument, therefore, is that the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact should be relaxed somewhat in the short term to facilitate productive spending, given the potential we could have. A German Minister of State, Mr. Michael Roth, recently visited Ireland, and the German Government has a very strong position on the rule of law. I discussed this with the Minister of State, Mr. Roth, and we support the German Government in that regard. We will assist Germany, which is driving the issue with a couple of other countries very strongly. This links to Deputy Durkan's question regarding the Keynesian type of injection required within our Continent.

I share Deputy Joe O'Reilly's views with respect to Deputy Phil Hogan. The Deputy focused on wind energy. It is interesting that the European Investment Bank, which is stepping into the stimulus area, as the Chairman mentioned, has already invested in Ireland within the wind energy sector. It is noteworthy that following the incident in Japan, the largest economy in Europe, Germany, is moving from nuclear energy.

Many members discussed climate change. With regard to carbon emission targets, credits can be applied by virtue of how much renewable energy we have. While we maintain and argue strongly that agricultural emissions are different from industrial emissions, by virtue of the importance of food security and so on, equally, we can and must strive to use renewable energy as a source not just of our own energy security but also to help achieve the sort of climate targets we must meet. The Deputy is right in that we want to meet the targets not just to achieve a European target but to maintain the sustainability of our environment for future generations. The Deputy is spot on with his reference to India and China. There will be a big push at the next European Council meeting to agree targets within Europe so we can take a leadership role for the Paris negotiations. Europe does not wish to follow, trying to sort out its own position before talking to the rest of the world. We want to agree our position first so that the European Union can take that leadership role.

Deputy Eric Byrne would probably be very pleased with some of the early commitments we have from President Juncker. He has spoken about the mobilisation of an extra €300 billion in the next three years to make better use of the European budgets and the European Investment Bank. This is really to try to address the key areas where we have failed. The Deputy asked about competitiveness. Europe will always find it hard in this area with respect to wages, as we have a well-paid and well-functioning economy that supports a very strong social protection network. Half of social protection money in the world is spent within Europe, and that is something we want to protect.

When we speak of competition, we must consider innovation and the research and development space. We compete by virtue of the education of citizens, their training and the degree to which Europe can be a market leader across a broad range of areas. In this country, for example, we have the greenest, cleanest and best production of agricultural products, and other countries in the European Union have their own specialties. The research and development space is very important, and we also need to deal with other key competitive areas such as tax.

I share Deputy Durkan's views about oil and gas targets, including the degree to which we will have to be fully aware of the requirements over the next number of years. There has been much talk - including today - about the focus over the last number of years on jobs and investment. Although there may be a dispute within the European Union about the way investment stimulus can get into the economy, given the weakness of growth and low inflation across such a large proportion of the Union, that voice is starting to be heard in a more urgent fashion.

I have covered the broader points. The Chairman is free to jump in if there is anything else that must be dealt with.