Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am glad the Taoiseach attended Gothenburg because, hopefully, this is a return to an EU which will develop a serious antipoverty programme not just for Ireland, but for the whole of the EU and particularly for countries such as Greece, which have not been able to exit their problems. I want to ask the Taoiseach about two issues. When I was Minister for Social Protection, there was a lot of work done at an incredibly slow pace on a European social pillar, in other words, and this is what Gothenburg was partly about, a strong social security system in each country. It would be a Europe of strong social security systems in each country that would help people and provide a cushion of safety.

Most importantly, we will not get people out of poverty and into a reasonably comfortable standard of living unless we address wages. Does the Taoiseach agree with some of the thinking about Gothenburg, that we need to maintain wage levels in the European Union as an absolute primary, and to maintain wage levels? This is something I know Fine Gael does not like, but we must return to social partnership and have national agreements that actually help those people at the bottom of the wage scale, including people who are bogusly self-employed.

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