Seanad debates
Thursday, 12 June 2003
Interest Rates Reduction: Statements.
For quite some time before we joined the single currency, the member states had been particularly successful in the EMS whereby they tried to regulate the relationship of the various currencies in Europe within certain pre-agreed parameters, which from time to time were reviewed. When we took the next step to introduce a common currency among most of the member states of the European Union, it might have been opportune on the internal stage to institute a EMS type system where perhaps, in so far as it can be regulated, the relationship between the dollar, the euro and the yen and probably in time the yuan, the Chinese currency, would have been regulated. China is a growing economy and probably in the next 40 to 50 years it will be the number one economic unit in the world. Such a mechanism would do a good deal to address the instability, which is an indeterminate when people are doing business and which artificially distorts trading across the global scene, driven by market forces or whatever else. Prior to entering the euro, the EMS was successful in maintaining a semblance of stability which helped the economies of EU member states. Perhaps that is something that might be examined.
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