Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Friends who have visited refugee centres in Greece tell me they are not organised and are chaotic. Consequently, I was glad to note in the Taoiseach's comments here that the number of people coming to Ireland under that process is starting to increase. I would appreciate it were the Government to arrange for the relevant officials to brief my party in more detail as to how exactly this will work, obviously outside the confines of the Chamber. I would appreciate acquiring a real and deep understanding of the process and would greatly appreciate it were the Minister of State to ensure this took place.

Obviously, the Council meeting will be dominated by the outcome of the Brexit referendum to be held in the United Kingdom next Thursday. If I may, I will start thinking of what the debate might be about or what might be the approach at the Council should the United Kingdom vote to remain in the EU. In preparing for this, I encourage the Taoiseach to consider some of the forthcoming items on the Council's agenda and to give thought to how he might use this as an opportunity for enhanced co-operation and for bringing some of those benefits that all Members present have sought from the Union but that are not always delivered. I understand from listening to the UK Prime Minister, Mr. Cameron, over the years that he has a particular concern regarding the development of an integrated digital market and an integrated energy market in Europe. These are often what he talks about as the benefits he wishes to take advantage of. On both, I believe there are possible gains for Ireland in taking that agenda and running with it, supporting it or seeking to ensure it serves our needs. As the Minister of State is aware, Ireland has a huge high-tech digital services industry. He also is aware that to get that right, Ireland must be the very best in respect of the protection of citizens' rights, with an ethical digital regulatory system regarding data privacy issues, free access to information and an innovative culture which, in our case, is not simply serving the interests of large corporations or the State. I believe we will work best and be most successful when we have a citizen-centred digital environment augmented by European rules that support it. If there is agreement on Brexit whereby the UK decides to remain - God help us if there is not and it decides to leave, which is a very different scenario - I argue the Taoiseach should seek to take the opportunity to consider that item on the agenda on opening up the full potential of the digital single market and making sure it is fashioned in a way that suits our purposes.

Similarly, I refer to the investment plan and the European Fund for Strategic Investments. I must declare a certain interest in this because, for the past five years, before returning to this Chamber, I have been working on issues such as the development of the North Sea's offshore grid, which was the area with the largest allocation of funding for Irish projects within the European Fund for Strategic Investments. It is clear that many of the investments for which we had been approved will now not happen because, in a sense, we have stalled in the development of our own clean energy programme. Consequently, I believe there also is an opportunity in this area, should there be an agreement for the UK to stay, to work much more proactively with the UK in the development of a regional electricity market and common infrastructure. In many ways, such development is connected to the digital single market issue because, if we develop such a co-ordinated energy market, there will be significant opportunities in digital services for energy efficiency and so on. This is a second area in which I believe the Taoiseach, if he is proactive, could work with the Prime Minister of the UK to develop our European Union regional market in electricity, which also would benefit us in allowing us to tap into the strategic investment funds that are available. More widely, I believe the Taoiseach should use the opportunity to seek much greater flexibility in the strategic investment area - for example, in the debate in the House last week on housing plans - as to how we would get Europe to agree to some of the investments that must be made. I believe it should be possible for us to radically increase the capital funding for social housing using a cost rental model, which would have a fundable stream. The Taoiseach should use this opportunity at the European Council, hopefully in a positive environment, to steer the European Fund for Strategic Investments in our direction. I commend him to use that opportunity.

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