Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witness for coming to the committee today and for outlining some very interesting points. I agree with the witness on certain matters. The departure of the United Kingdom from the EU will create a challenging environment for us in terms of repositioning ourselves within the member states and the alliances that are formed therein.

The witness raised two points in his contribution which I would take a particular viewpoint on. He asked the question of where we reposition ourselves and mentioned that Ireland supported some of the eastern European countries on the opposition to the French-German decision in the truck drivers case. While I am very much pro-European and support the EU and the development of stronger links, we always have to remember that at the end of the day countries are sovereign states within a confederation of sovereign states. What France and Germany are doing, in my opinion and in the opinion of all other Governments apart from their own, is adopting a protectionist position. It is not designed to protect workers' rights but to protect their own businesses and transport companies by effectively putting companies which operate from a lower cost base out of business. Unfortunately, sometimes in this country our media and some commentators are inclined to take a viewpoint which is very much to the detriment of Ireland in terms of advocating support for policy positions being advocated by bigger EU member states who effectively, under the guise of appearing to be benevolent, are actually trying to re-tilt the playing pitch to suit their own very high cost economies in some ways.

One of the more central points is how the European Central Bank behaves in its key core policy. We have to remember that it comes from the original German Central Bank. The original position - still fresh in Mr. Rigney's contribution - which drove Germany into a war was hyper-inflation and the collapse of a currency. For Germany to come into the new European currency it needed those reassurances. Regardless of German reassurance, the American Federal Reserve, in dealing with the world's strongest currency, has much more latitude in how it develops policy than the ECB has. Central to all economic growth within the euro region is the ability to show that the currency is stable, particularly against the risks of inflation. That is why I would be very cautious about moves to weaken the position of the ECB and its charter in terms of how it would tackle inflation.

I fully agree with the view of Congress that other factors need to be taken into account to aid job creation, to create a buoyant economy and to fund the types of social services that people want to see, but for me that is a role for national governments working co-operatively with the commission to develop the correct economic policies, some of which are not in play. I would caution against dragging the ECB into that area, because fundamentally, if we undermine the strength of the currency, everything else we do will have little or no impact.