Brendan Ryan (Labour)

If anything has been learned over the past ten years it is that we are a capable, innovative, imaginative and flexible people. International capital, that most ruthless of measuring indices, has recognised that fact. I do not dispute the significance of tax rates, grants and so on but the most appealing quality, according to HP, Intel and many other companies, is our achievement in producing an intelligent, well educated and very flexible, in the best sense of the word, labour force. This shows up when we have to do a job like this with extremely limited resources.

It is not long since terror and shock went through the entire Irish public service when there was political chaos in Italy and it was suggested that the Presidency would skip Italy and move on to Ireland at a month's notice. It is interesting that it was suggested that one of the biggest member states and a founder member of the EU was not up to the job but no one had doubts about the capacity of the Irish to do it. While I accept the practicalities involved, the boost to the confidence of small countries that came with the rotating Presidency is one of the things we will lose. Other things will come in its place but a permanent Presidency will take away some of that advantage. I look forward to the Minister of State's response to this point, which I do not make in any negative way.

I cannot but reflect on the irony of seeing, on the seventh day after the end of our Presidency, an announcement in the newspapers that our senior civil servants have been told they will have to wait three years for a review of their salaries. There is not a multinational company anywhere on this island which would make such a statement so soon after such a successful endeavour. Even if it thought of doing such a thing, no company would make a public announcement about it. One cannot but wonder if that mean-minded response to senior public servants has something to do with their increasingly effective campaign against the worst excesses of the poorly thought out decentralisation programme. It may be a coincidence that some of our most senior civil servants and their trade union have been among the most effective and vocal critics of decentralisation. After the level of achievement of the last six months, what looks like a mean-minded decision to repudiate their skills is regrettable. I am disappointed that a Government would do it.

While the constitution is exciting and challenging, I will reserve judgment until I see it. I know it is being printed in 21 languages and I appreciate the logistics involved but we should hold off until we see what it contains. I did a quick calculation, because I had more of a focus on the outcome of the European elections than others, and between 400,000 and 500,000 people in the European elections voted for candidates who are vigorously and overtly opposed to the European constitution, although I do not know how they could be opposed to it when it was not finished at the time. Whatever the outcome, we must be wary.

I have no problems with the Lisbon Agenda but Europe must stop believing that it is a basket case. I will end with a quotation:

America's superior economic performance over the past decade is much exaggerated. Productivity has grown just as fast in the euro area; GDP per person has grown a bit slower but mainly because Europeans have chosen to take more leisure rather than more income; European employment in recent years has grown even faster than in America; and America has created some serious imbalances which could yet trip the economy up badly.

That might sound like a paean to European social democracy but it comes from The Economist of 17 June. By all means let us make our economy in Europe more competitive and efficient but we must not abandon the qualities that have made Europe a better place to live than the United States for most ordinary working people, epitomised by the clear decision in Europe to choose longer holidays and shorter working hours over the simple accumulation of more consumer goods.