Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The agenda for this week's summit yet again lacks either the urgency or the ambition required to tackle the immense problems facing the citizens of Europe. Since the last summit growth has fallen and an even deeper recession has been confirmed. Over 26 million people are now registered as unemployed including a further rise in youth unemployment. Uncertainty has returned to the bond markets. The latest projections show that no significant recovery is on the cards across Europe. Yet the leaders of Europe are to hold a two day summit which will consider no new initiatives and will again endorse a strategy which has not worked and will not work.

The items to be discussed, and the draft conclusions, reflect a group of leaders who appear to have given up trying to find a better way forward. They seem completely unwilling to do anything other than implement fiscal controls and hope that lower trade barriers will solve everything. It is an unbalanced agenda which refuses to address the urgent need for strong countries to try to stimulate growth. It is particularly surprising that the Irish Labour Party is quietly going along with an agenda which appears fully to satisfy only the British Conservative Party. Before and after every summit the Taoiseach comes into the Dáil to talk about how giant steps are being taken to promote growth and jobs. The detail never matches the rhetoric. No action being discussed at this summit is capable of making anything but a minor and probably distant impact on the economy.

Over the past two years the Taoiseach has firmly established his reputation as the most partisan and tribal holder of his office. Every day in this House he responds to legitimate questions with snide political point scoring.

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