Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

The first point is there must be a debate in this House before the Taoiseach goes to Brussels, rather than after the meeting. Of course it is possible to have a debate at both times but it is somewhat counter-productive for the only debate to be held after the event. A proposal to this effect has been made for some time and a document on it will be published soon. The Government should be proactive and should take on board the proposals that have come from the Joint Committee on European Affairs on this matter. Perhaps Members will be given a commitment that this will happen in the forthcoming Dáil session in the autumn.

Second, I refer to the question I raised previously about the fact that Europe is to have a spring semester to deal with budgetary matters. Should Members not take on board this proposal by engaging in prior debate on such matters before all 27 member states come together in Europe? The Minister for Finance and perhaps the Taoiseach and the other prime ministers will be outlining the broad parameters of their own budget strategies, without giving the details of course, in an attempt to co-ordinate the activities of the member states in budgetary terms. Before this takes place, surely there should be a major debate in this House on the national budgetary strategy and on the general thrust of what the Taoiseach and Minister for Finance will say in Brussels?

Third, the national reform programme is the key to the ten-year Europe 2020 strategy. Unless a proper programme is drawn up for the implementation of the strategy, the aforementioned five targets will be useless. There is an enormous amount of work to be done as this will be a ten-year strategy. The Government should come up with the broad parameters as quickly as possible but the House also must have an input in this regard because serious matters must be considered in each Department on issues such as climate change, education, research and development, employment or the target of 3% of GDP. How will they be implemented and how will the structures be put in place? Who will drive it and what mechanisms will be in place? All the sectoral committees of the Houses should be beavering away on these matters, in addition to whatever the Civil Service is doing. However, there is no sense in doing so in a vacuum and such matters must come before this House. The Minister of State should indicate what is the timescale for this programme to be ready and what inputs are envisaged.

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