Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The key issue for Ireland in regard to the draft services directive is to ensure that we strike the right balance between removing obstacles to the realisation of a single European market in services, which we favour, while upholding the integrity of national traditions in the area of social partnership, industrial relations and dispute resolution practice, not least ensuring that established times and standards are properly protected. The Deputy will be aware that the current directive is under discussion. A huge number of amendments have been tabled. The Commission is committed to bringing forward a new document on the country of origin issue. Whatever happens, ultimately, it will be a very different document from the one we saw at the beginning. Our approach will be guided by the fact that as a small open economy, the development of a single open European market in services will be very much in our national interest in terms of employment prospects, trade opportunities, customer choice and the growing dependence of our future prosperity on high value international trade in services and goods. None of these issues should be underestimated.

It is clear that an enormous amount of work remains to be done on the draft directive before it is close to being presented for agreement to the Council of Ministers. While the Commission will bring forward these new proposals, it will probably be another few months before it will do so. It is expected to address the many concerns we raised, particularly the country of origin principle. There is a long way to go in this regard.

The answer to the Deputy's question is that we do not support the draft directive as it was put forward. We participated actively in the discussions to change it, as did our MEPs. Deputy Ryan, MEP, has been very active in this area. He has worked with trade union and employer interests, and will continue to do so. He will also continue to work with the social partners.

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