Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

I also offer my congratulations and best wishes for the successful completion of what will be, in effect, the final Irish Presidency in the form we have known on seven or eight occasions.

I will confine my remarks to the Lisbon process which is supposed to be the main theme of the spring Councils. I do not share Deputy John Bruton's view. The whole purpose was to try to exert peer pressure and force people to do things they found difficult to achieve domestically but which they might possibly achieve in the cold light of comparison. I have read the conclusions which contain an extraordinarily non-Irish phrase. I do not know from where it came but it certainly did not originate in Dublin 2 or Dublin 4. The phrase the "de-industrialisation of Europe" did not emanate from the literate quarters of our diplomatic service. However, it relates to competition and the fact that it is not working. Diplomatic language, blunt language and the language I heard from Pedro Solbes in Brussels last week prior to the Council proper confirm that the two follow-up spring Councils have not been as effective as was anticipated. The amount of time dedicated to the discussion on this matter was extremely limited.

In those circumstances, would the Taoiseach consider it necessary that a commissioner be given the responsibility of co-ordinating the Lisbon process? I do not refer to a commissioner for competition but to one with responsibility for ensuring that the Lisbon agenda is delivered and that league tables and comparative figures will be published in a transparent and open way in all 25 member states. Such tables could show comparisons in, for example, the cost of child care and access to certain kinds of support systems. This would enable the social, economic and environmental objectives that comprise the Lisbon process to be advanced by means of using peer pressure at local level in different member states. The process is not working the manner intended when it was agreed at Lisbon in 2000.

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