Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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It is a great privilege for me to come back as Minister of State to the committee, the membership of which I very much enjoyed. I know the members personally and very well.

This is an excellent committee, which functions with a strong sense of agreement. I wish Fiona well in her new job and thank the many members of the diplomatic corps who are here today for the support they have given during my first few weeks in office. With regard to the position of Vice Chairman, I feel reasonably secure in this job while there is no Vice Chairman in place, but perhaps the Chairman might take the job himself if it seems to be the only way possible.

Chairman and members, I am pleased to have this opportunity - my first - to brief the joint committee ahead of the next General Affairs Council, which takes place in Brussels Monday 29 September. I will also take the opportunity to update the committee on the previous General Affairs Council on 23 July and the informal meeting of EU foreign affairs Ministers in Milan on 28 and 29 August.

First, I would like to say a few words about the renewal in our European Union institutions. Since my predecessor last met with this committee, a new European Parliament has been elected, opening a new legislative cycle. Activity was slow over the last few months and in the run-up to the European elections. Jean-Claude Juncker was elected President of the European Commission and has since announced his intentions with regard to the membership and structure of the new Commission, which is expected to take office on 1 November. Meanwhile, at the European Council meeting on 30 August, Donald Tusk was elected President of the European Council. He will assume his position on 1 December.

Phil Hogan's designation as Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development is extremely welcome. Agriculture, as we are all aware in this country and as the committee is certainly aware, accounts for 40% of the European Union's budget. As well as testifying to Mr. Hogan's own abilities and experience, the designation reflected Mr. Juncker's appreciation of the huge contribution that Ireland has made to EU policy generally and in particular to the CAP reform package that was implemented last year.

Interestingly, while unveiling his new team, Mr. Juncker announced several important changes to the structure of the European Commission. Chief amongst those is the introduction of project teams led by Commission Vice Presidents. These teams will reflect the priorities of the Juncker Commission and the strategic agenda set out at the European Council in June. The structure is intended to bring a greater focus and a more collaborative approach to the work of the Commission.

Mr. Juncker has also announced the creation of a new post of First Vice President, which will be filled by the vastly experienced Dutch foreign Minister, Mr. Frans Timmermans. This is a new post and he will be responsible for better regulation, inter-institutional relations, the rule of law and the charter of fundamental rights. We were saying yesterday at our meeting that he could perhaps be described as a Chief Whip type of character for the President. He will also play an important role in ensuring that the Commission proposals respect the principles of proportionality and subsidiarity, which are important to us. These and other changes announced by the President-elect will take effect when the new Commission takes office in November and their full impact will only become clear after that. Alongside other members of the Government, I look forward to meeting the new members of the Commission and working constructively with them in the years ahead.

I will now turn to the forthcoming General Affairs Council. One of the principal items for discussion at that is the preparation of the agenda for the next meeting of the European Council on 24 and 25 October. The main focus of the European Council will be on climate change and energy policy; as the Chairman will be aware, the Council is now broadly known as the climate change council. Following discussions at the June European Council, the October European Council is due to take a final decision on the new Climate and Energy Policy Framework for 2030. Headline targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions and the share of renewable energy for energy efficiency are expected to be agreed. The European Council will also decide on further measures aimed at enhancing Europe's energy security and on specific 2030 interconnection objectives.

The discussion at the General Affairs Council - and also at the informal meeting of energy and environment Ministers in Milan on 6 October - will be key opportunities for member states to state their positions in the run-up to the October European Council. In parallel, high-level meetings at official level have taken place in Brussels in recent weeks in order to identify the building blocks for agreement in October. The aim of agreeing these targets in October is to allow the European Union to take the key leadership role in agreeing global climate change targets at the UN in next year's crunch conference in Paris.

Ireland is committed to working with other member states, the Commission, and President Van Rompuy to find our way to the shared EU objective of ambitious climate and energy targets. This objective was clearly articulated yesterday by the Taoiseach in New York. The targets agreed by the EU must be on the basis of a workable consensus that is fair and affordable for all. Therefore, a key issue for the European Council will be to decide on the issue of burden-sharing - in other words, how member states' contributions to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that do not come under the emissions trading scheme, ETS, are distributed. We can come to that later; it is a technical difference. Ireland is highly unusual among member states in that emissions from agriculture amount to 40% of our non-ETS emissions. That is significantly higher than any other European Union country. The scope for reduction in this sector is limited because Irish agriculture is already extremely carbon-efficient due to the predominantly grass-based nature of our beef and dairy production. In fact, Ireland is a world leader in climate-change-efficient agriculture.

We firmly believe that the European Union must develop a coherent and cost-effective approach to reconciling its goals in relation to global food security and sustainable food production on one hand and climate change mitigation and adaptation on the other. Thanks in significant part to Ireland's consistent stressing of the importance of the agriculture issue, there is now a growing appreciation of the need within the European Union for a holistic approach to agriculture and land use. We will continue to press for such an approach.

The agenda for the October European Council will also include economic issues, allowing Heads of State and Government to assess the current economic situation and to review measures to stimulate growth and job creation. Recent data suggests that downside risks to growth have materialised and that economic recovery has stalled in the euro area. There is a considerable variation in the situations in different member states, and on the positive side, a number of the periphery member states are showing signs of recovery, ourselves included. The need for flexibility within the European Union's fiscal rules to boost potential growth is likely to be considered by European Union leaders.

The Italian Presidency will be hosting a conference on employment on 8 October to consider how the European Union can stimulate job creation, particularly with regard to the vexatious issue of youth unemployment and how it can be addressed. Following discussion of the agenda for the European Council, the General Affairs Council will move on to consider the implementation of the strategic agenda for the Union in times of change. The committee will be aware that the strategic agenda, which was agreed at the June European Council, identifies five overarching priorities for the Union in the coming years. First, stronger economies with more jobs; second, societies enabled to empower and protect; third, a secure energy and climate future; fourth, a trusted area of fundamental freedoms; and fifth, effective joint action in the world, which the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Flanagan, is engaged in. Discussions will focus specifically on follow-up to the first chapter of the strategic agenda, a Union of jobs, growth and competitiveness. Ministers are expected to review initiatives undertaken in this area since the launch of the compact for growth and jobs in 2012 and examine aspects such as economic policy co-ordination, investment, employment, trade and the Internal Market. It is then intended by the Presidency and the Council that it will consider if and how there might be scope to improve follow-up on those at national and European Union level.

The Government welcomes the unambiguous commitment in the strategic agenda to strengthening the economic recovery that is now under way throughout Europe, although it remains fragile. We believe more can and must be done through the work of the new EU institutions to respond to the unacceptably high level of unemployment. As the Taoiseach indicated after the June European Council, this will mean restoring normal lending conditions through a fit-for-purpose financial sector and maintaining the strong momentum on the Single Market and external trade agendas. These will shape a regulatory environment that is more supportive of entrepreneurship and addressing investment bottlenecks more generally, including the crucial areas of transport, energy and telecommunications infrastructure, which is of particular relevance to Ireland. We are keen to ensure that we are preparing our economies for the future.

In particular, Ireland welcomes the explicit acknowledgement of the important role of the European Investment Bank within the strategic agenda. There has already been an increase in EIB support to Ireland in recent years, and we see the potential for further development of the project pipeline in the period ahead. This will be particularly crucial in the area of financing small and medium-sized enterprises that will create most of the new jobs that we seek to create. This agenda item is a response to the agreement reached at the July General Affairs Council.

My commentary is a little longer than normal because it covers three Council meetings. I hope the Chairman and committee members will indulge me in this regard. I am covering three meetings whereas normally it would be one. In response to the agreement reached at the July General Affairs Council, it has been decided that to more effectively discharge its duties under the Lisbon treaty the General Affairs Council will hold a monthly thematic discussion on the strategic agenda priorities. This will be the first such thematic discussion. I am pleased that the first discussion will be focused on the area which is clearly of most importance to Europe - that is, the area of jobs and growth.

Of lesser significance for Ireland, perhaps, but also on the agenda is the adoption of conclusions in respect of the EU strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian region. This strategy covers eight countries, including Croatia, Greece, Italy and Slovenia from the European Union and Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia on the non-EU side. This is the first time one of these strategic groups has involved non-EU countries. While we are not in this group, there are several members from within the European Union, and this is the first time a strategy for a region involving EU and non-EU countries has emerged. This is very much to be welcomed.

Under any other business, the General Affairs Council will also receive an update from the Presidency on the Friends of the Presidency group, which is meeting today. This is an official-level working group at the initiative of the Italian Presidency. Against the background of the strategic agenda agreed by the European Council, it will examine a range of issues linked to the functioning of the European Union system. Ireland is represented at senior official level in the group. Our view is that the Friends of the Presidency group must focus on identifying and agreeing practical ways in which the Council and the European Union institutions can work more effectively together. We believe this consideration should be within existing parameters. Now is not the time for Europe to get distracted by excessive bureaucratic decisions.

I will set out a brief update on the Europe 2020 strategy following the July meeting of the General Affairs Council. The July meeting noted an Italian Presidency roadmap towards the Europe 2020 strategy mid-term review, scheduled for the 2015 spring European Council. This sets out a series of important political exchanges which will take place across relevant Council formations in the coming months. In turn, these will feed in to a summary report which the Italian Presidency will prepare for endorsement by the General Affairs Council on 16 December prior to presentation to the European Council on 18 and 19 December.

As the committee is aware, Europe 2020 is the EU strategy to support growth in a smart, sustainable and inclusive way. This ten-year plan, which was adopted four years ago in 2010, is based around five key headline targets in the areas of employment, innovation, climate and energy, education and social inclusion. These are translated into specific goals for each member state, and progress is monitored through the European semester. It is clear that performance against these five areas has been rather mixed and has been overshadowed by the financial crisis. For the EU as a whole, the climate and energy and education targets are broadly on track. The innovation target is unlikely to be met based on current projections. Sadly, we have seen a deterioration on the employment and social inclusion targets, as we now have fewer people at work and more people at risk of social exclusion than when the targets were set in 2010.

The Government strongly welcomes the Italian Presidency roadmap and agrees that it is now time to renew engagement with Europe's post-crisis growth strategy. It is clear that unemployment remains unacceptably high, and we need to unlock a new wave of EU-wide investment supporting growth that is smart, sustainable and inclusive. The mid-term review will also be informed by the public consultation launched by the committee on 5 May, which will remain open until 31 October.

I was here when the Secretary General of the Commission, Catherine Day, appeared before the committee in January. She emphasised the importance of strong stakeholder engagement and public consultation, including from national parliaments. I commend the Chairman and the committee on the initiative it has taken in inviting public submissions to inform deliberations in this regard. I understand the committee will also be lining up more public sessions next month and I look forward to being kept abreast of these.

The July General Affairs Council included a presentation from the Italian Presidency on its work programme. This was very welcome, particularly in respect of its focus on jobs and growth.

On 28 August I participated in an informal meeting of Ministers with responsibility for European affairs in Milan. This meeting was exclusively focused on institutional themes relating to the function of the Italian Presidency. The informal meeting also discussed ideas for a radical reorganisation of Council configurations.

However, while member states were open to looking at modifications to the existing arrangements, there was little support for the more radical ideas suggested.

I met the German Minister with responsibility for European affairs, and strengthening ties with key European partners is a priority for me. I look forward to working with the committee in continuing to develop these relations. I apologise for the length of my submission which covered a number of meetings. I am very happy to take any questions committee members may have.