Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In response to Deputy Higgins, the proposition that there should be a levy on deposits under €100,000 did not come from Ireland. It would be worth the Deputy's while checking from where it came before making that kind of allegation.

I thank all the Deputies for their contributions to the debate. This month's European Council meeting represented an important opportunity for European leaders to take the pulse of the Union, particularly with regard to economic and social policy. It is fair to say, as the Taoiseach noted at the start of today's debate, that while leaders recognised and, indeed, welcomed the considerable achievements that have been made, the emphasis must remain on the continuing need for implementation of the wide range of measures that the Union has already agreed. Full and timely implementation of what we have agreed will ensure that our currency and the Union are returned to stability and that our energies are converted into restoring sustainable growth that generates jobs for our people.

I am happy to report that the first half of our Presidency has already seen a series of important achievements not least the provisional agreement we reached earlier this month with the European Parliament on the single supervisory mechanism for European banks, which is an essential precursor for the direct recapitalisation of banks by the ESM; the youth guarantee, which promises to provide young people with a good quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of becoming unemployed; agreement on the capitalisation of European banks, the CRDIV; the two-pack of economic governance measures; and an agreed Council position on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, the source of the vast majority of transfers to Ireland from the EU budget. These are real achievements, each of which has the potential to contribute positively to realising our Presidency priorities of stability, growth and jobs.

At the European Council, the Taoiseach reassured his colleagues that, as holders of the Presidency, we will continue to engage with partners and with the institutions to ensure every opportunity is availed of to ensure we follow through on implementation across the broad. The spring European Council was an important moment for governments to look in a very concrete way at the real economic and social challenges now being faced in most of our European capitals. The issue of jobs was at the heart of much of that debate.

This month's European Council marked the conclusion of the first phase of the European semester process, with the provision of guidance to member states as they now set about preparing stability programme updates under the Stability and Growth Pact and national reform programmes under the Europe 2020 Strategy.

The country-specific orientations for each member state will be returned to by leaders in June as will a full review of the Compact for Growth and Jobs, a year on from its adoption. That will be a very important. I welcome the fact that this meeting of the European Council explicitly recognised unemployment, especially youth unemployment, as the most important challenge facing us. That tallies well with what this Government has been saying over the past two years and with our priorities as holders of the Presidency. We now have agreement on the youth employment initiative and the youth guarantee. What is critical now is that they be implemented imaginatively and with energy.

Importantly, leaders also recognised the ongoing potential of the European Investment Bank to play an important role as a catalyst for growth and job creation. In hard cash terms, the €10 billion increase in the EIB's capital will go towards assisting in the co-financing of up to €180 billion worth of projects up to 2015. That is real money and real investment.

The potential of the Single Market to assist in boosting growth and employment remains. To make that potential real, we are prioritising the reaching of agreement on the key remaining Single Market Act I files. We also intend to progress, to the degree possible, Single Market Act II files, as they are published.

I welcome also the concrete moves which leaders have endorsed towards reducing the regulatory burden, especially on our SMEs, the backbone of our domestic economy and of domestic employment. Reducing unnecessary burdens at the EU level should complement what we are doing nationally and contribute to improving competitiveness. In each of these areas, what is now needed is urgent action and concerted implementation.

As holders of the Presidency, we continue to work closely with President Van Rompuy as he prepares the report on strengthening Economic and Monetary Union which he will present to the June meeting of the European Council. While there was no substantive discussion of this at the European Council, the meeting took the opportunity to take stock of progress towards the creation of a banking union and towards delivery of the commitment to separate banking and sovereign debt made last June and reiterated by the European Council in December.

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