Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister indicated there were successes during the six-month Presidency, in particular with regard to his stewardship of ECOFIN and he is to be commended on this. Although there are issues with regard to some of the details, it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge this.

The question I tabled is particularly relevant in the context of the very weak economic data we had last week. Unfortunately the country is back in recession, ostensibly because of weakening external demand and the situation in the eurozone and other developed economies. Much of what we hear from European summits and ECOFIN meetings in terms of growth-friendly statements and policies is impenetrable to people and it is very difficult to translate what has been decided to what is actually happening on the ground.

The Minister referred to the country-specific recommendations from the European semester and gave some examples of issues relating to Ireland such as credit, regulation and the role of the European Investment Bank, and there has been some progress on this. There is a crisis in the eurozone in particular, with more than 12% unemployment as confirmed yesterday, 26 million people out of work and record levels of youth unemployment. It seems the triple A-rated countries which have been fiscally very prudent are all engaged in fiscal consolidation as well as countries such as us which must do so.

The lack of co-ordination of fiscal and economic policy throughout Europe has resulted in the scenario we are dealing with now whereby external economic demand, in particular among our main trading partners, is weakening at a time when we depend on an export-led recovery. It is more threatened than it has been previously. Will the Minister gives practical examples on the ground of the knock-on effects and the implementation of decisions in Europe and ECOFIN and how they translate to Ireland and how they can help our economic growth?

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