Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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I thank Ms Nolan for her detailed presentation.

What is all this talk about the digital economy? Surely it is not just building a telecommunications Single Market. Will she give us a layman’s interpretation of this high aim Ireland is placing on the digital economy at European level? What is the exact plan that we are claiming will create an extra €110 billion for the European economy?

The committee should congratulate and wish Latvia well on becoming the 18th member of the eurozone. It should be recognised that it is entering at a good time when exchange rates between the dollar and the euro are good and have stabilised.

Some of the documentation presented to the committee refers to the priorities of the Commission. The social agenda is one area of concern for citizens both here and in Europe. Will Ms Nolan explain how Irish agencies access, if at all, the European moneys set aside to implement the strategy for integrating the Roma community into mainstream European communities?

Given the background of the scare that some of these Roma people may be kidnapping European children, what agency is charged with drawing down funding from this Roma strategy?

I am delighted with the policy being implemented across Europe to try to address tax fraud and undeclared income. The Swiss are to be congratulated on recently arresting somebody with a large sum of money travelling back to Germany and, as a consequence, discovering huge art collections that had been pilfered in Germany. It was not a huge amount of money. We have heard of our criminals carrying bigger sums of money. We had an assistant city manager with more money stuffed in his fridge than this person was arrested with. Am I imagining that there is increased surveillance, policing and customs activities on undeclared sums of money and the tax evasion that seems to be rampant in Europe? Are the Irish authorities as good as the Swiss or Germans in targeting these people who are moving between borders with bags full of €100 notes?

My last question is of particular relevance. I am not an expert in this field but the European External Action Service, EEAS, has been particularly active in countries such as Greece which are funnels for illegal immigrants. The deaths of the boat people coming from North Africa, Algeria, Morocco or wherever were tragic. How much of a priority is it to reinforce the EEAS in carrying out border security? The report tells us the Commission is very keen to create job opportunities and to have minimum rates of pay for these seasonal workers and wants to ensure the benefits of European workers are not undermined by huge inflows of illegal immigrants.

The European neighbourhood policy, ENP, is of tremendous importance and is particularly topical now. What is happening with the Russians, who, one might say, are intimidating their neighbours into joining their customs union? Armenia has pulled out of any agreement or plan to move closer to Europe, and Moldova and Ukraine are under pressure. Will progress be finalised this year on our relationships with Moldova, Albania and Ukraine? Given the size and population of Ukraine, it is very important that it is a good neighbour for us.

With all due respect to the audience, there are only two members here. It is very sad and a poor reflection on the committee's membership.