Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

The President of the European Commission yesterday warned that the future of the euro depends on the implementation by the EU of stronger, stricter and broader governance of the financial markets, better co-ordination of member states' budgetary proposals and tougher sanctions for countries breaking budgetary rules. He was correct. The regulation of financial services was also discussed at the EU summit. It was agreed by the Heads of State to introduce systems of levies and taxes on financial institutions to ensure fair burden sharing and to increase incentives to contain systematic risk. Can the Minister of State outline how this will happen, who will monitor it and how it will be applied in respect of the Irish situation?

Can the Minister of State outline the national plan in respect of the five areas mentioned? What structures has the Government in mind to ensure inclusion in drawing up reform programmes? Is there a time schedule for submission to the Commission? Is work taking place on a parallel basis with the Commission and Ireland, similar to the targets set for climate change and emissions reduction of 20% by 2020? There were ongoing discussions leading to that target being agreed. Unfortunately, at the political level, in initial negotiations there was little contact at committee level or in plenary session about why it should be 20%. Much of this work is done behind the scenes between our Civil Service negotiators on behalf of the Government and the officials of the Commission. That is fine but others need to be included. Deputy Costello pointed out that we are discussing a summit that took place on 17 June when we should be discussing the proposals on the agenda for the next summit and the input, if any, of this Chamber on our stance on the items to be discussed. We should bear in mind that large commitments were given on the passing of the Lisbon treaty for greater inclusion of the views and ideas of national parliaments. Once the Lisbon treaty was out of the way, that desire seems to have been parked. I am not aware of any new structures to allow this Chamber to have a broad debate on various issues seriously affecting the citizens of this country.

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