Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

-----but I will limit the time I spend replying. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle can rule me out of order on that.

I will begin with the question on the community method of decision making, something about which I have spoken repeatedly for the past year and about which I feel strongly. I chair the interdepartmental group in government preparing our priorities for the Presidency. This is something we have already agreed will be a very important feature of our Presidency, that we will advance the community method of decision making. I stress there would not necessarily be consensus in the Chamber about that. While some of our colleagues are happy to condemn France and Germany for their role in trying to provide leadership at a European level, equally if we start talking about strengthening the role of the European Commission, which is the body where every member state is represented equally and impartially, they will clamour to condemn that approach as well. One has to begin to wonder whether they want any leadership at a European level or whether they want to deconstruct the entire thing.

I welcome the focus on the Presidency in the Deputy's questions. I hope what I said goes some way to answering the question on how we intend to approach our decision making. We want to bring all stakeholders on board. We want to ensure that all member states are central to decision making and that the European Commission will be more proactive in leading the legislative agenda, particularly when it comes to implementing the key growth enhancing measures that we so desperately need. It may come as a surprise to Deputies that these are not something that have suddenly fallen out of the heavens in the past three days; they are measures on which we as a Government have been providing plenty of leadership, especially during the past four months where the Taoiseach along with a number of other Heads of State and Government have been leading the charge in putting the growth and job creating agenda front and centre at a European level, not least at the informal summit in January and again at the spring summit in March.

On the Deputy's question on the role of the ECB, this is something we are currently discussing internally in government. We had a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on European Affairs last week at which we prepared our approach to the June summit, to the informal dinner at which growth will be discussed which will take place 23 May and to forthcoming ECOFIN and eurozone meetings. We are anxious to see an enhanced role for the ECB. That again is not something new from the Government's perspective. We have seen clearly that there has been a quid pro quo at European level in recent months. When the stability treaty was agreed in principle in December we immediately saw a direct response from the ECB, which immediately pumped €500 billion into the financial system. We saw a repeat of that action in January, which was hugely important to stabilising the European economy. I do not think any of us are particularly fans or cheerleaders for the banks at present. In terms of the reputation, behaviours and activity of the banks during the past number of years, be it before the crash or since it in terms of credit and providing funding for SMEs and start-ups and so on, we all know the problems, but one thing is for sure, without a financial system and a banking system we would not have an economy and without an economy we would not have a society. It is as simple as that. We cannot unfortunately separate one from the other. The role of the ECB in December and January in pumping that liquidity into the system right around the eurozone was crucial and was a direct response to the political agreement for the stability treaty. I believe we will see more flexibility and more advances. It has been incremental and it may be frustrating but guess what, we are dealing with 27 democracies, 27 governments often pulling in different directions, more often than not working together but not necessarily always agreeing together. That is the beauty of democracy and of the unique construct within the European Union and we have to respect that. Some might like if we could dictate to the Bundestag, the Assemblée Nationale or any other parliament but that is not the way it works. Nor can we dictate to Greece for that matter and on every occasion it has had to vote for these packages and bailout programmes. We have achieved a huge amount. We have seen major progress but we will see more and we need to see more.

I am a supporter of a policy of euro bonds, something for which I have been calling for many months, in fact since I was appointed more than a year ago. We have not got there yet but I believe we will get there. Anybody who believe it is a serious prospect that we will get there before we put in place binding and enforceable rules to govern our currency needs to get into the real world because it is not. A more robust and enhanced role for the ECB is something I and the Government very much support.

On the Deputy's question on the Balkans, I thank him for his continued interest, along with Deputy Mac Lochlainn and others, in this region. It is a cause for concern but also a cause for hope and optimism particularly because of Croatia's accession next year. The Deputy will be pleased to know that I will be travelling to the Balkans for a week in July and I will then travel on to Turkey. If memory serves me correctly, I will visit Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia. I may not be travelling to Serbia until September but I will certainly be travelling to Bosnia and will be there for the 20 year anniversary of the massacre there and I will then travel to Turkey where I will talk to representatives of the government. This is something I consider to be a priority. Some would say I should just be focusing on the existing member states of the European Union, but I disagree with that. Enlargement is hugely important. Reaching out to prospective member states and to the countries in the Balkans is extremely important, especially as the holder of the incoming Presidency of the EU. They really value our interest and are thrilled with the long-standing co-operation on the part of the Irish Defence Forces but also the political engagement from the Government. I look forward very much to that.

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