Joe O'Reilly (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Tánaiste for attending today and for making this presentation. I commend him on the priorities he is bringing to the General Affairs Council meeting. The prospect of the European Stability Mechanism, ESM, directly recapitalising banks is welcome and I wish the Tánaiste well in pursuing that. The compact for growth and jobs is critical to this country. We have a risk of losing a generation of 17 to 25 year olds because they are experiencing 30% unemployment. This is a huge issue and while we all accept the need for financial retrenchment and good economic management, as we saw in the recent referendum, they must be matched by active job creation activity from Europe and within the State. I would be interested in hearing how optimistic the Tánaiste is on that issue.

The Tánaiste identified the Common Agricultural Policy as critical to Ireland. Is the Tánaiste optimistic we can maintain the overall amount within the multi-annual financial framework?

Can we maintain domestic discretion over the use of our envelope of money? We are in the best position to know how to target our spending on areas of need, on agricultural production and on the 2020 objectives, which have job creation at their forefront.

I would like to raise a final issue which relates to all the other matters that have been mentioned. The huge task we all face is to turn all of our many achievements to date into jobs. It is for that reason I am so impressed by the priorities that have been set. I hope the Tánaiste will be able to tell us he is optimistic that progress can be made with these ambitions.