Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I am very impressed with her and I listened to what she had to say. She directed me to Mario Monti's article in yesterday's edition of the Financial Times which is worthwhile reading for anyone who has not read it. It is a reminder that the 2020 strategy will not work unless we work very hard at it. We need discipline to ensure these measures succeed. We can make it work but we must be very committed to it.

I will now discuss some of the figures drawn to my attention yesterday. The economic world order is changing fast. My eldest granddaughter, Emily, was born in 1990 and at that time four European countries were in the top ten world economies, by 2020 only two will remain. Since 1990, European GDP has increased by 50%, and I thought that was great until I learned that China's GDP has increased by 500%, and by 2016 China will be the world's strongest economy. Where will a divided Europe be then? We will shout for Ireland on the football field but we must work together to ensure we find a way to sacrifice the differences we have.

Already, China decides the worldwide price of commodities. It owns more than 95% of almost all strategic commodities as well as strategic assets on five continents. I could not get over the amount it invests and buys in Africa. China will soon dictate the exchange rates of the euro and the dollar and decide which country it rescues and under what conditions it would allow such a rescue to take place. Europe must wake up to these facts and do so very quickly. We must clean up our financial back yard and at present we are part of that financial back yard. We must do so if we are to compete on a newly configured world stage. We are making an effort in Ireland and we are doing better than some other countries.

Can one picture how difficult it must have been in Greece last night when the confidence motion was passed by the skin of its teeth? It was done in almost darkness because the electricity workers were striking because they disagreed with some of the steps being taken. Talk about economic suicide. This is a time when we in Ireland need to focus our attention on what we need to achieve. We must urgently address the public deficits in some member states which have been known but ignored for years. They are now threatening the very survival of a united Europe and the survival of the euro. We must muster all our political courage to act, and the time in which to act is rapidly becoming a resource scarcer than oil, water or air. I am quoting someone with whom I spoke last night who also said we have only borrowed the world from our children and grandchildren and therefore we do not own it ourselves.

The changes that need to take place are severely altering the way the world trades. If Europe is to compete we must act as one and we must act very quickly. A typical example of where Europe cannot get its act together is the European patent. Has anyone counted the number of SMEs prevented from obtaining a European patent in the past ten years because for logistical reasons the cost has remained prohibitively high. Given this fact, how can Europe at the same time claim it is committed to boosting SME development, particularly innovation?

The Lisbon strategy was a very brave document. It promised to make Europe the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010, which was last year. It did not succeed. Now we have a strategy for 2020. It is a lovely new strategy but do we have a similarly new political will? Our children will tell us that having a nice strategy in a glossy brochure is not good enough. It is not enough to tick a box and then relax. We need to deliver on the details which make a difference. Where is the 3% target for increased budgets for innovation? Fewer and simpler administrative rules to boost SMEs and a single market for the processing of payments are some of the measures we must take.

I speak about the single market for the processing of payments because the organisation in Brussels with which I am involved achieved success in this area. The outrageous charges that we, the public and citizens of Europe and retailers because we were representing retailers at the time, have to pay to pay to credit card companies is in the hands of each individual nation. However, the organisation, EuroCommerce, achieved a breakthrough in cross-border charges because the multilateral exchange is an outrageous burden. It is being changed in the United States and we can change it in Europe. There are things we can do but, as Senator Mullins and others said earlier, we must become more competitive and it is in our own hands to do so. The Minister of State can make huge changes. I am delighted to hear the words she used today and I encourage her to continue with the same enthusiasm.