John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I read previously that the mandate from the ECB is connected with the foundation economic environment of the ECB at the time, when there was a great amount of growth going on and possibly nobody ever envisaged jobs being an issue. It came to a real head during the financial crisis, but that is perhaps for another day.

In this paper Mr. Makhlouf suggests that if inflation was to persist then the case for monetary policy action becomes stronger. What kinds of tools are at the ECB's disposal? We do not have any at own individual disposal, or do we? Would there be budgetary options there?