Colm Burke (Fine Gael)

In a debate about EU matters we need to be positive in respect of what the European Union has done for us, because it appears we walk away from that when debating such issues. In 1992, 1.2 million people were at work. By 2008 the number had increased to 2.1 million, a huge increase in the number in employment in a short time. The reason we were allowed grow the workforce was that we had access to markets in the UK and at European level. We were fortunate in being able to grow the markets and, as a result, grow jobs.

In recent years we have had to readjust as the numbers in employment decreased from 2.1 million to more than 1.8 million. The latter figure is still substantially in excess of the number employed in 1992. In the period 1994 to 1997, when the economy started to grow, 1,000 jobs per week were created. It is important also to examine how the farming sector was able to develop. We are getting €8.4 billion in EU supports for the farming industry. This is being reviewed in the negotiations on the Common Agricultural Policy which has made a major contribution in helping the agriculture industry and also developing downstream industries.

Why have we ended up in our current financial difficulties? To a large extent, there were warning signs in 2001 and 2002 when we allowed the property market to go unmanaged and unsupervised and became dependent on it. Out of every €100,000 earned from the sale of property as much as €44,000 went to the Government through salaries paid to PAYE workers in the construction industry, VAT, capital gains tax and stamp duty. There was a feelgood factor because we thought we could continue to grow services and allow the associated costs to increase. When, unfortunately, the construction sector contracted, it was difficult to keep services going. We did, but we need to be more efficient in doing so. The treaty will allow us continued access to moneys for services and to help the economy to grow. Without access to funds we cannot continue to provide the services required.

In the past 12 months there have been major achievements in providing stability. Our next step is to ensure we can continue to increase job numbers. The ESM has provided security in the sense that we do not have to seek €500 billion from the markets, which is extremely important. It is interesting that in the period 1991 to 2000 the level of debt increased from €36 billion to €40 billion, but as a proportion of GDP, it decreased from 95% to 35%. The treaty will give us the security we require to maintain services and help to stabilise the economy and ensure jobs are protected and increased. By increasing the number of jobs we can increase our access to markets. The European Union holds the key to expanding our role in them, as a result of which we can make sure there will be jobs for the many young people who have graduated from our educational institutions. There is evidence of this occurring in the past few months during which a number of foreign companies have set up here.

It is important that Ireland vote "Yes" in the referendum. This will give us the stability we require and allow the Government to continue the programme for economic recovery.