Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There should be no difference between the murder of one police officer in uniform and another. It is astonishing that Sinn Féin would still hold that view. When Queen Elizabeth spoke in Dublin Castle, she said history teaches us many lessons and that, in hindsight, some things might have been done differently and some things might not have been done at all. We must learn the lessons of history and move on to the future.

I discussed the question of corporate tax rates with the First Minister and Deputy First Minister in the context of the island of Ireland. That is a matter for the United Kingdom Government and the Northern Ireland Executive. They will hold discussions in their own time. I am not sure when they might make that decision. In making such a decision, the government might take into account the fact that there is to be a referendum in Scotland in 2014.

The Prime Minister rang me the day before he made his speech on Europe in London and I also spoke to him briefly in Davos, where he was making a speech to an audience. I made it clear to him that we have a very close relationship with Britain. It is our largest trading partner, there has been considerable movement over and back for many years and we want that to continue. I made the point that Ireland voted 60:40 in favour of the fiscal stability treaty and of our link to the euro and the European Union with a clear path to the future. I also made the point that Britain has always been a driver of the Single Market and that the opportunity now presents itself, even during our Presidency, to get a mandate to start discussions on free trade between the EU and the US over the next number of year with potential to grow economies by at least 2% with 2 million jobs resulting in Europe, as an assessment, and to conclude trade agreements with Canada and countries in the Far East. It is important to have Great Britain involved in these developments and this is recognised by all other European leaders. I put those points very strongly to the Prime Minister. He also set out his stall.

Holding the Presidency, we have made the point that the leaders of Europe need to make decisions and build a sense of trust among ourselves about what we want to do. It is unacceptable that 26 million people are unemployed in the European Union. This must be addressed by implementing political decisions. Decisions are being implemented on the digital market, data protection and content, trade opportunities and opportunities to grow our economy even further, particularly our exports and services which recent figures show are going in the right direction.

The British Prime Minister speaks for the British Government, even though his junior partners have a different attitude to Europe.

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