Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

Go raibh maith agat a Chathaoirleach.

This week the Taoiseach has yet another EU crisis summit. Yesterday Spain formally requested European aid of up to €100 billion for its banks, making it the fourth state to require an EU bailout, within hours of that Cyprus became the fifth state seeking a bailout for its financial sector and today Italy is paying more at a bond market. This summit, which was billed as a growth and jobs summit, will inevitably be dominated by the rising borrowing costs of Spain and Italy and the weaknesses of the European banks.

The Taoiseach needs to set out what he will be advocating at this summit. Will he be bringing forward a stimulus plan? We have not heard that. Does he have concrete proposals about how the EU Structural Funds should work, we have not heard of those, or about how funds from the European Investment Fund could be used in conjunction with the National Pensions Reserve Fund to stimulate growth in Ireland, about which we have not heard any word? Has the Taoiseach spoken to other EU leaders about this plan? We have not heard of either the plan or of the Taoiseach lobbying in support of it. Has he sought allies for his proposals? We have not heard his proposals or who he may have contacted in support of them.

The Taoiseach told us on 6 June after the informal summit that the board of the European Investment Bank had been asked to report to the June meeting on the capacity of future lending for qualified structural projects. Has the Taoiseach had sight of this report? I do not have the same script writer as Deputy Martin but the script before me states: "You cannot continue to sit on the sidelines and hope, as you did on the issue of the jobs and growth-----

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