Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Howlin raised the question of what is on the agenda of the Council meeting. I submitted the letter in respect of the digital single market, which has been going on now for 30 years, and with which we need to deal. On the question of whether the EU-27 member states can meet legally, it is not the European Council that is meeting, rather it is 27 members of the European Council. The 27 are meeting informally and not as the European Council of 28 members because Britain is still a full member until it leaves.

I agree with Deputy Micheál Martin that what is happening in Aleppo is savagery beyond contemplation. I am not sure, given all the discussions we have had at European Council meetings all over the world, in Geneva and everywhere else, whether the issue here relates to whether the United Nations, as a world body, should be reformed and perhaps given greater influence to intervene. This is a complex operation in the context of Russia being supported by Iran and Hezbollah supporting Assad. Aleppo has been the scene of humanitarian crimes and war crimes, and I strongly believe we should and will prosecute where possible in that regard.

Deputy Burton made an extraordinary assertion that because the European People's Party took a very strong line, Italy decided to vote against a referendum on the Senate. That was a constitutional issue, not a verdict on the European Union. While I am very much acquainted with the former Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, and supported him on many of his issues, clearly, there were other reasons the Italian electorate decided to vote down the referendum. Mr. Gentiloni comes from the same stock as Matteo Renzi and has set out to place a very steady hand on the tiller. I would point out to the Deputy that in Austria the people - at the second attempt - voted for an independent Green candidate, that the Government of the Netherlands lost a vote on a referendum on Ukraine, that Spain had two elections before it could form a government and that Britain has its own result on Brexit, which I respect. Therefore, the Deputy cannot say that the European People's Party is responsible for the demise of Italy. I would be the first to say that in terms of the recession that occurred in the European Union, the European Central Bank might have acted differently in the context of what happened in America. However, we have moved from that point to where we are now.

Deputy Adams commented on matters that I support in the context of the horrific scenes we have seen in Aleppo, with men, women and children being butchered in a savage fashion in 2016. It is appalling.

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