Ann Ormonde (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State. I congratulate him on his work in all areas relating to Ireland's Presidency and on his role in bringing the EU closer to the citizen. It is worthwhile this morning to discuss the Irish Presidency and where we are at. A review of the spring European Council is necessary because we need to relate to the public at large again. It is natural that the debate so far has been mainly about the security problem. I am delighted we have received a clear message again that all member states should work together to demonstrate solidarity in the light of the bomb attacks in Madrid on 11 March last. In such a spirit of solidarity, we should support any member state that becomes a victim of a terrorist attack. I acknowledge the ground work that was done by the officials, through the Presidency, in getting a clear message and in forging an agreement on a declaration on combating terrorism. The Irish Presidency played a major part in that agreement and in bringing about these anti-terrorism measures. I also welcome the fact that we have now appointed a co-ordinator to encourage the exchange of information, police, security and intelligence co-operation and strengthening of border controls between member states. We need a co-ordinator to keep all these measures under review and keep member states up to date on developments. If the spring Council did anything, it brought about the reinforcement of these measures. Security is a very important issue for Irish people, who want to know what Europe is all about. Here is a golden opportunity to find out. The security measures adopted through this declaration will help in combating terrorism.

The consultations of the Intergovernmental Conference are ongoing and there is a genuine hope that all outstanding matters will be agreed shortly. Among these are the size of the Commission and the issue of qualified majority voting. Knowing that the Taoiseach is at his best in these negotiations, I have no doubt that the June Council will bring about a satisfactory solution to these problems along with the finalisation of the constitutional treaty.

The spring Council was initiated on the basis of the Lisbon Agenda, although part of it has been taken up with security and the IGC. I have taken a special interest in the Lisbon Agenda, the ten-year plan and our current position. I am delighted that our need to set the agenda has been acknowledged by the Irish Presidency. The pace has been slow and we have not really aimed for the targets that were set out for 2010. I support the idea of setting up national agendas, rather than following the Lisbon Agenda, so that we can investigate areas in which the pace has been slow.

The focus of the Irish Presidency has been on the areas of sustainable growth, competitiveness and better jobs. How can we go about achieving these? As the Minister of State pointed out, the only way in which this can be done is to improve competitiveness through better education, better harmonisation of our qualifications and greater adaptability in the workforce. Investment not only from the Exchequer, but also from the business world, can enhance competitiveness. We may not be sluggish about these matters in Ireland but other member states do not really have a grasp of how to handle it. Recently, I visited Istanbul for a conference on the issue of whether Turkey was ready to apply to join the EU. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of delegates from other countries who asked about Ireland's recipe for success and what model we were using. The whole of Europe seemed to focus its attention on our success story.

We talked about the Lisbon Agenda. We seem to have got it right in some ways: we have better mobility and our education system is first class. Perhaps we need to work on the adaptability of workers in certain areas and encourage research and development to enhance the European store of knowledge. On the whole, however, we seem to be achieving our aims in a natural way. This was nice for the delegation from Ireland, whose members were able to talk about our success story. More needs to be done, however. The Irish Presidency has reinforced this idea.

We are halfway through the Lisbon Agenda, which started in 2000. There still seem to be some loopholes.