Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 38, inclusive, together.

I participated at the European Council on 24-25 October, the outcome of which I reported in detail to the House on 6 November. I also travelled to Paris on Tuesday, 12 November for the second conference on youth employment in Europe at the invitation of President Hollande. I was accompanied in Paris by the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton. I had informal contacts with a number of colleagues at each of these meetings. Separately, I spoke with Chancellor Merkel on 25 September and sent a letter of congratulations to her on the election result.

The Paris event was organised by President Hollande to maintain political momentum behind address of the youth employment challenge. This included identifying concrete actions towards implementing the youth guarantee agreed by the Irish Presidency in February. It followed a similar event organised by Chancellor Merkel in Berlin in July. My own contribution focused on digital skills and the potential of the digital economy generally, including in light of the October European Council and the recent Dublin web summit. I believe the discussion reflected well the huge priority being accorded to this issue which is affecting member states across Europe.

Following on from my visit to Rome last November, Prime Minister Enrico Letta visited Dublin at my invitation on 7 November last. We agreed that the visit marked the start of a more strategic, structured Irish-Italian engagement on EU issues. We discussed the range of current EU issues, with a particular focus on banking union-EMU and youth unemployment.

Following the Government meeting of Thursday, 14 November, I announced in this House the Government's decision to exit the troika programme. Subsequently, I spoke with a number of European Council colleagues, including Chancellor Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Letta and Finish Prime Minister Katainen, to inform them of the decision taken by the Government regarding our exit from the troika programme. In these calls, I explained the decision we had taken and the key reasons behind it, namely, favourable market and sovereign conditions; strong cash reserves, historically low sovereign bond yields; public finances under control, with the Government committed to reducing the deficit to less than 3% in 2015 and putting the debt ratio on a downward path; strengthened governance at European level with the two pack, six pack and the stability treaty, the introduction of the ESM and the major efforts by the ECB to do whatever it takes to safeguard the currency; and improving domestic and international economic conditions and sentiment. I thanked them for their support to Ireland over the past three years and looked forward to further support in the future.

In relation to the October and December European Councils, I made a detailed statement to the House on 6 November in relation to the October European Council and do not propose to repeat it today.

With regard to December's European Council, President Van Rompuy has prepared an annotated draft agenda which builds on the work done in October. The agenda was considered by the General Affairs Council on Tuesday, 19 November and will be considered by it again in December prior to the Council. The meeting is expected to cover economic and monetary union, including banking union; economic and social policy, including SME financing and taxation; common security and defence policy; enlargement; migration; and energy. Of these, banking union is currently the outstanding political priority across the Union. We are committed to following through on the decisions we have already made on banking union, and December's Council will be particularly important in that regard. I will, of course, make a statement to the House in December ahead of the Council meeting, and subsequent to it.

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