Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Chairman and welcome the Minister of State to the meeting. In respect of the priorities he highlighted, I very much agree with him regarding the understanding of people's views of Europe and what Europe is about. I am not sure whether this has been adequately done over the years by members of the European Parliament. In many cases, they are more involved in many local issues than in the European project, which is regrettable. It might be interesting to see what words come to mind when one mentions the European Parliament to people. Do they think of austerity, EU directives, regulations or unemployment? It might be interesting to compare that in terms of generations because people of a different age would look at the EU in terms of stability, growth and what it has done for Ireland and other countries across the region. It would be interesting to do that survey and see what results one would get.

I know the youth guarantee is very important. There is a pilot project in Ballymun at the moment. The Minister for Social Protection has stated that the European Parliament and the Commission have yet to reach agreement on the qualifying criteria for funding the youth employment initiative. This is delaying applications for funding so it is important that this is sorted.

In respect of the Cohesion Fund, we lost out in the last round because we were higher than the 90% average of European funding, which is a positive thing. Unfortunately, we lost out in that last round so are there any plans to change the criteria in respect of the next round? Ireland's average figure at that time was €38,970, while the EU average was €33,609 so we were higher than 90% of the European average. Are there plans for that?

In respect of the European Regional Development Fund and European territorial co-operation which is one of the European regional policies and involves cross-border activities and the development of transnational co-operation, we have one trans-European border, which is Northern Ireland as part of the UK. Do countries with large numbers of EU neighbours like France, Belgium and the Netherlands benefit disproportionately, particularly if we are losing out in respect of the Cohesion Fund? The Minister of State might have some views on that.