Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State. Having listened very carefully to what he said today, I am delighted by his appointment and his enthusiasm and effort.

I am sure I am older than every other Member here. I left university in the 1950s. The day after I finished my last exam, I travelled to the Continent and spent the winter there. I believed I was a republican and a Nationalist but when I returned I suddenly realised I had to wear two hats; for the first time, I discovered other teenagers were European. I look back now at those years and note the changes that have taken place and how they have influenced us. We have five children and sent them all to school in France for one term before they were 14. Somebody said that if one learns a language before one is 14, one will be able to speak it without an accent. At that age, the two girls fell in love with Frenchmen and are now married to them. Half of our grandchildren spoke French before they spoke English. It has been a wonderful success.

I am an enthusiastic European. It was interesting to listen to Senator Bacik speak about "The Life of Brian" and ask what the EU has ever done for us. I think of the comparison between the 1950s and now. Yesterday, I was in Brussels and I thought about the fact that we no longer have customs. There was a time when one returned to Dublin one was worried about whether one had bought something and whether one would be examined. We hardly need passports any more; we still need them because of not having signed up to the Schengen accord but I hope we get through this. We can travel by rail, and one ticket will take us throughout Europe. It is so impressive to see this and to see the currency we have in 17 nations.

When considering what the EU has done for us, by far the biggest change is peace. In Ireland, we did not really experience the problems but two world wars occurred in the previous century and we have now had 70 years of peace. We must make this European dream work and we must find a way of doing so. It has been very threatened in recent times. It will not work if we allow the EU to fall apart in various ways. I am particularly worried about the danger of a two-speed Europe. Nationalism is great for sport and I want to support Ireland. However, we must put this aside in economics and avoid the dangers of a two-speed Europe.

I was delighted to hear the Minister of State say it is the Government's job to create the conditions for entrepreneurs and SMEs to succeed. The meeting I attended yesterday in Brussels was to do with SMEs and we spoke about the problems and challenges they face and the success they have. The major challenge SMEs have is in establishing new businesses with the amount of legislation and legal and administrative conditions that exist. We must find a way whereby entrepreneurs and those establishing SMEs do not consider moving to China or California. We must ensure they do it in Ireland.

Several years ago I was in Panama, and that country had considered how to attract entrepreneurs and SMEs. The first thing it did was to make it easier to establish a new business and sought to be better than other countries which had reduced the administrative burdens for establishing new businesses. It set a target and exceeded it. It takes seven hours to establish a new business in Panama. This gives us some idea of what one is able to do.

Yesterday, I met the MEP, Anna Maria Corazza Bildt.