Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

I welcome this opportunity to speak on the motion. I wish the Taoiseach and others success in negotiating at the summit to protect what is in the best interests of Ireland and, more importantly, what is in the best interests of the European ethos, which is an ethos of a community of small and large states coming together in a manner that recognises their differences but works for a community approach in developing and enhancing the lives of citizens throughout the European Union.

I am disappointed with the European Commission. It has been a failed entity in recent years in that it has been simply sidelined. The President of the Commission has been sidelined and the Commission is effectual, incapable and, more importantly, it is not even assuming the role of guarantor of the treaties we entered into in the context of the Treaty of Rome and the other treaties up to the most recent one that was passed. The Commission is the guarantor of those treaties. It has fundamentally failed to address that serious deficit that is now at the heart of Europe in the context of the Franco-German alliance of Chancellor Merkel and President Sarkozy in promoting their own national interests above and beyond the interests of the Community. That is a serious matter and it goes to the heart of what the European Union is about. The Taoiseach must defend the interests of the Irish people at the summit but often the interests involved are intertwined. Clearly, the European Commission has been pushed to one side, the French President and the German Chancellor have decided to implement their own national agendas in view of elections coming down the track and that is very much jeopardising what is happening to the European Union.

It is unfortunate that we have a time slot of only five minutes for these contributions because I would like to elaborate substantially on the matter of the European Central Bank. It is independent in its nature and cannot be interfered with. Under its charter and establishment under the various treaties, there is an onus on it to take into account social and economic issues over and beyond the narrow approach of just monitoring inflation. The European Central Bank, without any treaty change, has a duty and a fundamental obligation to look at the broader picture rather than only inflationary figures that are the obsession of the German Chancellor.

In discussions on these issues, the European Union and in particular President Sarkozy have become obsessed to a certain degree with the issue of corporation tax. Divergence within a community is a positive development in the sense that it creates competition and innovation in the broader sense. The European Union should strive for the Union to be competitive as a whole and for countries to compete with each other in the interests of all our citizens rather than some countries having a narrow defined focus on what is in their interests. This debate is about making sure the euro survives first and foremost to ensure there is no cataclysmic meltdown of the broader European economy and that there will be some transfer not of powers but of oversight. The oversight failures of the European Union and national governments have caused every citizen pain. While people would blame the previous Irish Government for a lack of oversight, there was a lack of oversight at the heart of Europe in the context of the European Central Bank allowing cheap money to be sloshed around economies that were in an inflationary mode. That was a failure of governance and oversight by the organisation now lecturing us.

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