Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for that. We looked at the bigger picture, which is the programme of expansion and investment being considered by Prime Minister Abe and his government. Japan is an extraordinary country, with an extraordinary standard of living and an extraordinary level of investment, despite the fact that it has suffered recession for many years.

The Deputy asked about the situation here and the European Central Bank. I made this point on many occasions. Our priority for 2014 is to focus on our indigenous economy. Hopefully we can achieve 2% growth this year, 2.5% next year and 3% the year after that. This means a challenge of creating 50,000 net new jobs this year and the same again next year. Banking is an issue here, in Europe and all over the world. We want to see banks contributing to the real economy here. That means access to credit for small and medium enterprises, and the opportunity to follow through on incentives that can be provided. We need to do something about our construction sector, which is not contributing what it should. Hopefully, we can make it much more effective than it is at the moment. The European Commission presented a report to the European Council some time ago of 800,000 jobs being available in the digital sector by 2015. We have a lot opportunity in Ireland with all our potential, but we need to develop that.

Mr. Draghi has made his position very clear about holding interest rates steady and on issues which Europe should follow. The European Parliament noted the opportunity for assistance to be given to Ireland for recapitalisation of legacy banks. That is still on the agenda and meetings held in January reaffirmed this. Banking union and similar steps towards making that case, while they are not of direct interest to Japan, are of interest to us.

I am not really interested in the Deputy's comment about the longevity of political parties. That is for the people to decide. They are always masters and judges, and we have to live by their decision. If the Deputy is in this business and does not understand that, then he should not be in it in the first place.

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