Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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It was decided to monitor 17 EU countries and come up with country-specific recommendations. Part of the review was to deal with the fiscal obligations under the excessive deficit procedure, and the Commission was worried by the figures from France and Slovenia that they may not be in compliance with the budgetary targets that were set. We heard about Slovenia supposedly going for a bailout, which did not happen. Are matters improving? Could the Minister of State give us his views on those two countries and whether they have overcome these observations by the Commission?

One of the key areas, which the Minister of State mentioned, is energy security. Europe has taken a position on Russia, and rightly so. Russia is a major supplier of energy resources for Europe. Is the Minister of State happy that the balancing act of sanctions against Russia and the net counter-effect on Europe has been fully worked out? Now that the Russians have refused to allow imports of European agricultural produce, there is a very worrying trend in Europe that we are hurting ourselves more than we are hurting the Russian economy. Does the Minister of State have any views on it?

I concur with what the Chairman said about the Adriatic and Ionian regions. The Minister of State knows I am fanatically supportive of Albania's progress. When we were there, we saw them breaking their hearts to comply with expected standards. They did that and jumped a very important hurdle. I ask that the Minister of State continue to give Albania, Montenegro and the other countries further support.

It is great that we are on track regarding the climate, energy and educational issues. The most significant tragedy and challenge for Europe and, by implication, Ireland is our failure to meet poverty reduction goals. Europe is slipping in this field. Social inclusion is a very important issue. We hear about it in Ireland in terms of social housing, homelessness, drug addiction, street sleepers and beggars. These are the visual symptoms of a country that has not managed its social inclusion measures properly and where poverty reduction goals are not being reached. It is wonderful to see children celebrating their exam results and doing phenomenally well. Access to university is at an all-time high, educational qualification standards have risen immensely, and it is wonderful. I worry, however, that if we do not tackle the other end of the scale, much of the good work will be undone because no society can develop a proper economic, social infrastructure if it allows the growth of social alienation, disadvantage, homelessness and drug addiction to continue.