Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Those of us who were involved in economic management during the last crisis hoped and indeed believed that we had entered now into a different time, a time of unprecedented opportunities to transform Ireland for the better. A few short months ago, nobody could have envisaged the impact Covid-19 would have, not only on Ireland but on the world. This is a different crisis, a unique and unprecedented crisis, but there are lessons we can learn from the last one.

The first lesson I want to address is on the issue of EU solidarity. The initial attitude to the last economic crisis, as the Minister will recall, lacked solidarity and a spirit of cohesion. In the initial stages of that crisis, countries like Greece, Spain, Portugal and ourselves were left to our own devices and were required, for example, to take upon our own taxpayers the burden of recapitalising of banks. Victim countries, if I use that phrase, in this particular crisis cannot be blamed. There cannot be that attitude because Covid affects everybody, not, let me be quite clear, that there was any justification for blaming anybody in the past. What is now required is a genuine sense of solidarity.

There is a glimmer of hope in that regard in the Franco-German proposal. It is a modest enough proposal. Looking at the politics of it, from my perspective - I am interested in the Minister's view on it - it is almost what Angela Merkel has discerned would be acceptable to the Germans, namely, funding of €500 billion. On top of the moneys available through the European Central Bank, it is a significant sum. It is not sufficient but it is a start. However, even that is not over the line and I am interested in the comments the Minister has had to date in relation to how it is going to be expended. We still have to get over the next European Council meeting and the so-called frugal four, comprising The Netherlands, Austria, Sweden and Denmark. Their opposition may well be sufficient to block it.

Does the Minister agree with me that a eurobond-like fund, whatever we call it, that allows money to be deployed not as loads but in the way cohesion funding was deployed in the past, supporting grant aid to countries affected by this crisis, is absolutely an essential component of our recovery? If he agrees with that, how is such funding to be deployed? Is it to be buckled onto the multi-annual financial framework, which seems to the German-proposed solution? I think it is a good proposal because the moneys would be part of the general financing mechanism and could be deployed front-up. What work has the Minister done to support that proposal to date?

I have a linked question. Has the Minister been briefed, and can he share such a briefing with us, on the consequences of the German constitutional court's findings last week regarding future German participation in funds like this? Obviously, the finding does not yet pertain to this fund. We know the Eurosceptics in Germany, including the Alternative für Deutschland, are likely to take a case against this proposal. What is the Minister's view on that?

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