Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is important to put the negotiations in context, especially with reference to where we started from. This country supported the original Commission proposals on the European Union budget. There is no secret about the fact that the Government would prefer and would like to have seen a larger budget. However, we had to try to achieve agreement among 27 member states and do so in a way that would enable agreement to reached with the European Parliament in the course of time. What was facing European leaders last week at the conclusion of the discussions was not a choice between this budget and a larger one or this budget and the original budget proposed by the Commission but whether there would be agreement on any budget. Given that in recent years Europe has been mired in economic crisis, it is, above all, desirable and an advance that the European Council was able to agree to a budget. There has been a clear message that the European Union is able to conclude a budget.

We should not lose sight of the scale of what has been agreed. The total amount committed to in the budget is €960 billion which, by any standards, is a very large sum to e mobilised to address economic issues in Europe.

With regard to the Irish position, we emerged from the budget negotiations as a net recipient of European Union funding. If we factor out the period 2014 to 2020, based on current growth assumptions, we will contribute in the order of €10 billion to the EU budget at 2011 prices, but we will be a beneficiary or the recipient of €12 billion. That will be our net position as a country. Some 40 years after taking out membership of the European Economic Community we remain a net recipient of European Union funding. The bulk of the funding we receive comes through the Common Agricultural Policy, for which there is a shrinking budget. There was a good deal of pressure for further reductions. The reduction under the Commission's proposal is 7.2%. The figure under heading 2 represents a reduction of 4.5% and in the case of direct payments, 1.8%.

The representatives of this country have made it clear from an early stage that we want the issue of youth unemployment to be addressed. It is the greatest social-----

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