Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I attended a meeting of the European People's Party, EPP, in Marseilles before the meeting of the Council in Brussels. I travelled by commercial aircraft because the function in Marseilles was not a Government one. Arriving in Brussels, I went straight from the airport to the meeting at half past eight and left it at 5.30 a.m. There were no bilateral meetings between any parties. This was a particular kind of meeting, as the Deputy is well aware. I sat beside the Prime Minister, Mr. Cameron, and had numerous discussions with him during the course of the meeting. For the Deputy's information, when the break occurred between the views of the eurozone countries and that of the Prime Minister, I suggested there should be a political discussion about the difference of opinion with regard to the involvement of all 27 countries rather than the eurozone 17, but that, clearly, did not prove possible. I did not say that I would encourage the Prime Minister to sign up to the treaty. What I did say was that it was critical that the UK remain a central part of the EU. The EU needs Britain and Britain needs the EU.

When spoke to the Prime Minister in Downing Street I made a point to demonstrate the strength of the triangular connections between Ireland and the UK from a trading perspective. If, for example, there was a drop of 0.5% in our exports to Britain, it would more or less wipe out all the gains we have made in the BRIC countries. The Prime Minister shares this view. I also made the point, which the Deputy will accept, that one thing that has been lost in all the inter-institutional wrangling is the solution to the overall problem, which is the potential of the Single Market to cause growth in economies. We agreed in Downing Street that we would make proposals from both countries to our colleagues in Europe and to the Commission that the legislative and decision-making process in Europe should be viewed from a growth perspective at every stage. In other words, what comes through in Europe should have at its core demonstrable potential for growth in all the economies. This is of critical importance to us as an exporting nation. We agreed on that. As I said, I did not have a formal bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister in Brussels because of the reasons I outlined but I spoke to him frequently during the course of the meeting.

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