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

There was a broad range of questions. To start with the question on broadening the tax base, we welcome the fact that the Commission and the Council have acknowledged that Ireland has made significant progress in this regard. I will not go through the property tax and the other ways in which we have broadened it to date. Development in the future will be in the space of getting more people back to work and increasing income tax revenues in that way and increasing spending tax revenue through VAT as we see domestic demand and activity growing in the economy. That is the next phase on which we will focus.

The Europe 2020 strategies are being reviewed at present. With the exception of the education sector, many of the targets were not achieved, so it remains to be seen what the next set of proposals will be, but the Deputy is spot on: there will have to be a broad engagement across all sectors of Irish life. This cuts across many of the questions. Whether it is in Europe 2020 or the country-specific targets, the people who benefit most from achieving the targets in both areas are the Irish people themselves. That is why we will be looking to get strong engagement with respect to all of them.

I was very glad to bring to the General Affairs Council the issue of - it was not referred to as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, as it must be referred to in the European Council-----