Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy will recall me saying on more than one occasion, as many members of the Government have pointed out for quite a long time, that we cannot tax our way back to prosperity and we cannot cut our way back to prosperity. We have a set of problems here that we have to deal with because nobody else is going to deal with them. As I have said on many occasions, from a point where we were losing 7,000 jobs a month in the private sector, it has now come to a point where 1,000 jobs are being created every month, which I believe everybody could welcome. While it is clearly not enough to do what we need to do and get where we want to be, it is a good start in the reversal of the direction we were headed in.

Let us be clear. In so far as my contributions at the European Council are concerned, with regard to this philosophy of saying we cannot and would never be able to either cut or tax our way back to prosperity, what we need to do is to set out a strategy for the development of the Union and the eurozone as we see it, and follow those things through. Yes, it would be lovely to have mountains of money to throw into stimulus of one sort or another, but let us consider the circumstances we found here, as well as the fact all of these facilities that are now becoming available were not available then. Our debt to GDP ratio would be below the European average had we not had to deal with the catastrophic position in regard to the banks and their recapitalisation.

President Barroso understands very well what is going on around Europe - he is a former Prime Minister of Portugal. As I said to the Deputy in my reply, President Barroso gave a presentation to the European Council meeting on growth, competitiveness and jobs, and the priorities for the European semester for 2013. If the Deputy does not have it, I will forward him a copy of that presentation as it may contain some paragraphs of interest to him. It points out the opportunities for competitiveness and, arising from competitiveness, for growth and jobs, which are the fundamental issue here.

It is not true to say we live in some kind of pretend world. Rather, we live in the world of reality which walks in the door to everybody in government every day, with unemployment, lack of economic activity and, as a consequence, lack of hope - I am sure the same applies across Europe.

The Deputy asks why I would not stand up and defend the position he articulated here even once. It is not just about doing so on one occasion. It is pointing out on a consistent basis what Europe needs to do to rectify its problems. The first thing it must do is follow through on its own decisions. If there are additional proposals that are of benefit to the European economies and can create jobs and stimulate growth, I can assure the Deputy that the European Council is more than amenable to working with any such suggestions. All the think tanks in the world will not be able to sort this out unless countries themselves take the actions that are necessary at national level and work as a unit to grow the Union. Clearly, there are serious challenges ahead and the situation in many countries is fragile but it must be dealt with. If someone says we can suddenly arrive at billions of a stimulus, that would be great but the real world does not work that way. While Mr. Draghi has pointed out that he will do whatever is necessary at European Central Bank level to protect the euro and is doing so, governments individually and collectively as a eurozone and Union need to follow through on decisions. We have been and will continue to be very strong and vociferous on that because that is where the future growth and benefit will come from for, as the Deputy pointed out, millions of people.

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