Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

No, I did not discuss the questions Deputy McDonald raised arising from Mr. Barroso’s comments or the comments of Mr. Ashoka Mody, the former IMF employee, because they had not been made at that time. As I indicated to Deputy Martin, we discussed the range of priorities for our Presidency, the challenge for this country and the difficulties people were experiencing because we did not have a resolution on the promissory note, nor indeed a resolution in respect of an extension of lower maturities to flatten the debt profile. Neither did we have any real fix on the single supervisory mechanism. At that time, not much progress had been made on banking union, which will have an important part to play.

I made the point previously that when the gentleman from the IMF was in this country as one of the lead persons, he spoke in a very different way about the issue and the challenge arising from the much abused term, austerity. It is clear that one can neither tax one’s way back to prosperity nor achieve it through austerity. The challenge for us is to stimulate the indigenous economy and to restore a sense of confidence. In that sense, decisions made by Government have impacted on competitiveness, which has increased by 20%. We are creating 1,000 jobs per month in the private sector, which is important when compared with a loss of 7,000 a month for a number of previous years. An example of the progress made is the major announcement today by Glanbia of a significant investment which will create 500 jobs on the construction of the new plant in the south Kilkenny-Waterford area, which will provide up to 1,500 jobs on family farms from north-east Cork up to Louth, with the abolition of milk quotas. They are important signs of confidence. One should also note that a contract was signed this morning for the N11 and the Newlands Cross junction, which is a significant road development that will provide both transport links and contract jobs. It will allow the Government to move on to the next public private partnership priority, which is the road from Gort to Tuam.

I could not have discussed the question referred to by the Deputy with Mr. Barroso or Mr. Ashoka Mody. However, I did discuss the issue with Ms Lagarde.

In response to another of the Deputy's questions, I had no meeting or connection with Digicel in Davos. The chief executive that I spoke to was from a different company, from a northern European country with very significant international and Irish interests in telecommunications. Our discussion arose at the IDA-sponsored investment and continued investment in Ireland event. The company in question is Ericsson.

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