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

On some of the more direct questions on asylum seekers, the answer is, yes, we are in favour of processing applications in countries of origin. That is our position. Generally speaking, our focus has been on addressing the root causes of immigration and working with countries in the region. As the committee knows from COSAC, that is not a position that is universally accepted. Understandably, our discussions are focused on very short-term solutions. However, we must continue to encourage that the parallel root cause solution takes place, otherwise we will continue to be in the same position. With respect to the five presidents question, proposals for implementation in the shorter term will include greater attention to the aggregate fiscal and economic stance of the eurozone, which will include a better implementation of the macro-economic imbalance procedure. We will then see increased momentum in structural reforms that will follow on from those.

I take Deputy Byrne's point, but as Deputy O'Reilly will be reading the Official Report, we will cover his question as quickly as we can. Deputy O'Reilly asked about arrears and our fourth country-specific recommendation. We are fully aware of the requirement to reduce the difficulty for businesses and individuals. Clearly, we have to re-emphasise the importance of early engagement, steering as many cases as possible to the strengthened insolvency service. We are also looking at improving the court process. A particular question was asked about the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland. While there is, of course, an emphasis on - and we have the Credit Review Office in place for - people who have legacy issues when it comes to applications, it is still the case that any lending institution will have to look at a broad range, including the proposal itself, and history will always remain part of that. We are very eager to encourage that across a broad sector of Irish life we allow businesses, business people and individuals to rehabilitate themselves and move on from legacies that, in many instances, were not of their own making.

Deputy O'Reilly asked specifically whether the Taoiseach will raise the issue of collusion with Prime Minister, David Cameron. I am not aware that the issue is specifically on the agenda. The Taoiseach may well raise it. There will be other discussions, but given the European Council next week, the main item for discussion today is the proposals the British will bring forward with respect to the referendum they are going to have.

Deputy Eric Byrne mentioned legal services not being part of the country-specific recommendations this year. There are two elements to the answer in this regard. There have been fewer country-specific recommendations for everybody. There has been a specific push to simplify them. Equally, we have had very significant progress with respect to the Legal Services Regulation Bill which is now nearly through the Houses of the Oireachtas and there is a strong sense that progress has been made in this regard. The Deputy will remember that when the troika was leaving, legal services reform was identified as one of the few areas where we had not made progress. We can now say that the Minister for Justice and Equality has made good progress. I took one of the debates in the Dáil and Seanad and Committee Stage in the Seanad is scheduled very soon. The Minister and her Department are confident that the Bill will conclude shortly. Rather than request them to reintroduce it, we should focus on doing the job that was requested of us last year to ensure that it does not reappear as a country-specific recommendation.

We will all agree that the comments of the Greek Minister for Defence were very unfortunate. They were not supported by the Greek Prime Minister and others in subsequent commentary. Greece has participated constructively in EU discussions on migration and, to be fair, we must look at the fact that it is one of the countries with a very significant number of migrants seeking access or located there. The Commission's proposals aim to deal with the difficulties faced in particular by Italy and Greece. Deputy Kyne is correct that we must look at the push factors when it comes to migration such as conflict resolution and working with external partners to help their economies to progress.

I point out to Deputy Eric Byrne that the semester process is, first, a matter for each parliament. The agreements on the European semester allow the time and space for countries to engage with internal CSRs. In particular, this has been done at the finance committee although it is the second time we have discussed them here. A couple of years ago, the time between publication of CSRs and their adoption was very short but we now have a much longer period. Deputy Durkan made the accurate point that it is up to the Houses of the Oireachtas to engage to a greater extent with the European semester. I have been struck that we have not really evolved in the Houses in terms of looking at other countries' CSRs, which is part of the benefit of the semester process. Given the inter-related nature of all of our economies, we should have regard to and concern for what is happening in other countries.

That segues into the other question of when the surplus countries are going to play their role. Perhaps understandably, there has been an overemphasis on the deficit countries but the surplus countries also have a responsibility. That is why, within some of the discussions around EMU, there is an increasing focus on the aggregation of the European economy.

In some of the discussions concerning EMU there is now an ever greater focus on the aggregation of the European economy. One country in particular clearly has a greater surplus than everybody else.

How am I doing for time, Chairman?