Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I cannot speak for the Signal conversations. We saw what was said there. I cannot speak either for pressure on people to spend money on defence. I think Deputy Lahart summed it up best. He mentioned the Nordic countries and said they are terrified but prepared. That is why these individual countries, not the EU, want to spend more on their own defence. I have here a booklet that has been sent out to every house in Sweden by the Swedish Government, “In case of crisis or war”. Every house in Sweden is getting that, a country which is an exemplar of a social democracy. It is a country that we speak about very regularly in the context of things like the Swedish model of childcare and how women can go out to work because of the childcare model. It has an advanced social security system that looks after all sections of society. However, as Deputy Lahart says, they are terrified but prepared. Defence spending, as I said, is a member state competence. We are doing it ourselves anyway. We decided to do that as part of the Commission on the Defence Forces. That pressure to increase spending is coming from the threat it sees from Russia, which Ukraine has suffered in the land invasion and which other countries have seen in cyberattacks. We were the victim of a well-known cyberattack among other cyberattacks that have not been publicised. This is very important. It is important we prepare ourselves to protect that social safety net that countries like Sweden, and indeed Ireland, aspire to and have put in place at world-leading levels. It is important that we protect our economy.

Tariffs were mentioned by Deputy Boyd Barrett in this context too. Everyone is against tariffs because they cut growth and jobs but when we had the Canada trade agreement three or four years ago it was a big debating point in the Dáil. That reduces tariffs to zero or near-zero on trade with Canada, the friendliest country in the world. One of the Green Party TDs went to the High Court to stop it. Sinn Féin, through An Phoblacht, said it was a threat to our democracy. The Social Democrats wanted a risk analysis of this tariff-free agreement with Canada. That is the reality from the Opposition and now it is bemoaning tariffs.

On this side of the House, Fianna Fáil in particular and Fine Gael also have always supported free trade. The Deputies opposite told us the Canada trade agreement was a threat to our democracy. It is called CETA, probably the worst-named treaty ever. It should have just been called the Canada trade agreement and people would not have had any difficulty with it. We do not want tariffs. A question was asked about what we have done in terms of discussions on tariffs. The Taoiseach went to visit President Trump and this issue was on the agenda. Everybody saw that. The Tánaiste has had interactions and conversations with the commerce secretary and Commissioner Šefčovič. I met Commissioner Šefčovič last week. In response to what Deputy O'Donoghue said about the pharmaceutical industry, I made it very clear that it is not just an Irish asset but a European asset in terms of protecting ourselves and our security of health care. Commissioner Šefčovič is well aware of that.

On what Deputy Lahart said about simplification, the easiest way to describe this, as the Taoiseach described it, is to reduce red tape. The leaders call on the Commission, the Council of Ministers and the Parliament to work towards achieving the target of reducing administrative burdens by at least 25% to 35% for small and medium-sized enterprises; to advance work on the packages that have been published already; and to adhere to better regulation principles throughout the legislative process. This is a step change from the European Union, while acknowledging that we need to protect workers, the environment and consumers. In some cases, business regulation has gone too far and has stifled investment, economic growth and job creation in Europe. We are going to push that forward and I look forward to doing my bit at the General Affairs Council.

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