Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank members for their very knowledgeable questions. I will begin by answering the last question, which related to the conflict in the Middle East. It is an issue that was highlighted by the Minister, Deputy Charles Flanagan, at the Foreign Affairs Council. I did not refer to it in my statement but we are in full agreement with the requirement that these issues be raised and discussed.

On the question of preparing for the worst-case scenario in regard to Brexit, we are looking at the various potential outcomes. It would be remiss of us not to consider what might happen if the people of the United Kingdom vote to leave the Union. At this stage, however, it is vital that we, together with other member states, engage fully with the elements of Prime Minister Cameron's letter, which highlighted four areas in which he wishes to see changes. The Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, published a report recently which stated that it is in our national interest economically that the UK remain within the European Union. Drilling down into those figures, it is important to acknowledge that the expectation of an economic difficulty for Ireland is based, in the main, on the greater economic difficulty the UK, our main trading partner, will suffer by virtue of its leaving the Union. In other words, while we do see some difficulties for our economy, we see them as arising, in large part, because we do not consider it to be in the best economic interests of the UK to exit the Union.

Deputy Joe O'Reilly and others asked about how we are positioning ourselves in respect of the proposals put forward by Mr. Cameron. We are absolutely clear that we want to support the British Government in achieving many of the measures it has set out because they are clearly in the interests of all member states. Particularly in the area of competitiveness and in the case of reforms that are to the benefit of the Irish people and all the people of the EU, we will support such proposals in a very full manner. We are now at the point where the detail is being discussed between European Council officials, Commission officials and member states. There was a period of time in advance of this process starting where people were wondering when these issues would be dealt with, given they were highlighted some years ago and discussed in the course of the general election campaign in the UK. However, we have now arrived at the substantive point. The Government considers the approach being taken, which involves seeking the views of member states, as prudent.

The Chairman asked whether the proposal to establish national competitiveness boards might see a race to the bottom in terms of wages. While I stated in my opening contribution that we are concerned about provisions which might add additional layers of bureaucracy and duplication, we are not really concerned that such bodies, if they come to pass, will undermine strong and important values such as the provision for a national minimum wage and protection for workers' rights. The argument is that they offer a way of assessing and comparing between different jurisdictions.

With regard to the proposal for a European fiscal advisory board, the composition of such a body is very much at the discussion stage. How it would operate certainly is of interest to us and the focus on the aggregate euro area fiscal stance might well be a welcome development. However, given that the decision was published so recently, it is too early to adopt a more advanced position. Reference was made to the fact that other countries do not have a fiscal advisory board-----