Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

I welcome this opportunity to address the House as part of the programme of events to mark Europe week. I am also glad to update the House on our approach to the EU Presidency, now less than eight months away. As it happens, Ireland will celebrate the 40th anniversary of its accession to the EEC as it takes over the Presidency. I feel this anniversary provides us with an opportunity to reflect on our membership and how our country has grown and developed over the past four decades.

The direct and tangible benefits of membership are well-known, perhaps some now even take them for granted, but many here will recall how the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, helped transform Irish agriculture and rural life. Ireland has benefited enormously from access to the Single Market which has fuelled our export sector and helped make Ireland an important centre for international investment. Our national infrastructure has been transformed through cohesion funding. Membership has benefited individual citizens in a range of ways, whether through improved legal and social protection or, for example, through opening up educational or employment opportunities across the EU. The peace process in Northern Ireland has received and continues to receive significant EU support.

As well as a time to reflect on the benefits we have derived from the EU, the Presidency offers the opportunity to demonstrate our commitment as an active and constructive member state and to assess what role Ireland can play in the future development of Europe. This Government continues to work to rebuild our economy and to build economic growth and prosperity. Stability and economic growth go hand in hand. We will only succeed in our objective of economic recovery if we work from a solid platform of stability in Ireland and in Europe. Fighting the ongoing financial crisis will remain a priority for Ireland during its term of the Presidency. Ireland will work to ensure the implementation of the EU's new economic governance rules and procedures that will lay the ground for greater economic and fiscal stability.

While we need to restore stability to Europe's markets and economies, the time has come to focus to a much stronger extent on the challenge of getting the EU's economy growing again, as well as creating the conditions for sustainable employment and growth. We look forward to working at European level closely with partners for a stronger and more co-ordinated approach to reducing unemployment. Reflecting the national priority that we attached to this issue in Ireland, Ministers are working across Government to identify measures in every European policy sector aimed at creating the conditions necessary for long-term sustainable economic growth and job creation.

In its Presidency, Ireland will work to ensure key decisions are taken on the EU budget for 2014 to 2020. Decisions on this budget will have implications for the CAP and the Common Fisheries Policy, CFP, which are clearly of critical national importance. There are other measures vital for our future economic development including funding for Horizon 2020, the EU's framework programme for research and innovation. In keeping with our plans to place jobs and growth at the centre of our Presidency programme, we are focusing on areas including the Single Market Act, the digital agenda, programmes that support research, development and innovation, and ways of reducing bureaucracy so that small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, can focus more on developing their business and creating jobs. We will need to ensure we remain impartial and fair in handling the EU's agenda but many of these priorities in fact mirror our national objectives.

Ireland will seek to promote the external trade agenda during the Presidency. The decision to hold an informal meeting of trade Ministers in Ireland during the Presidency, which is intended to focus on EU-US trade and to organise related business-focused events, signals the priority that we give to this. Several large conferences and events focussing on research and innovation are being planned for Dublin during the Presidency by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. These issues will also figure prominently on the agendas for ministerial meetings in areas such as health and energy.

We are working to promote responsible social policies across the EU. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, will invite her colleagues from across the EU to a conference in Dublin in 2013 aimed at addressing issues including co-ordinated ways of fighting poverty and promoting social inclusion. In Ireland we attach great importance to the value of education and during the Presidency we will seek to build ways of extending greater access to education and training to all Europeans and to strengthening standards to boost the EU's global economic competitiveness.

The reform of the CAP and CFP will be of major importance in 2013, and Ireland will seek to use its Presidency to support and promote innovation in agriculture, environmental sustainability and food security. It will seek to support and foster a more responsible and sustainable future for the EU economy by placing an emphasis on measures aimed at boosting the green economy, an emerging area in which the EU can become a world leader. Energy efficiency has been identified as a priority area during the Presidency with a focus on how new technologies can be employed to make more efficient use of the EU's energy resources. We will work to support policy that will take a responsible approach to protecting Europe's environment for future generations.

These are just some of the main emerging priorities of our Presidency programme. Between now and the end of the year, the Government will work closely with our European partners, the EU institutions and civil society as we continue to develop and define our agenda. The emerging priorities of the Irish Presidency programme reflect national concerns but we believe that they also reflect the concerns of millions of people across the EU. The Presidency is an investment in Ireland's economic recovery and an investment in a better future for Europe.

Ireland developed a reputation during its six previous Presidencies for handling the business of the European Union in a fair, impartial and effective manner. It is no mean achievement for a small member state and it is our ambition to do the same in 2013. We see it as an integral part of the Government's strategy to rebuild our international reputation. At the same time, given the circumstances in which we find ourselves, we will seek to run a cost-effective Presidency by reducing the number of venues for meetings and taking a close look at expenditure in every other area of planning. Based on current estimates, the Presidency is likely to be well under the budget for Ireland's last Presidency in 2004. We are also planning for beyond the Presidency. A successful Presidency can strengthen our relations with our partners and help to promote our national interests at EU level. The Government has also established a working group representing the main State agencies and other key stakeholders to consider the central messages we want to convey about Ireland during the Presidency and to identify the opportunities that it will offer to promote Irish goods and services.

The Presidency has always posed challenges for a smaller member state like Ireland. Running the Union's busy and complex agenda for six months is a challenging task. Ireland has demonstrated its abilities in the past and I am confident that we will do so again in 2013.