David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome a fellow Munster man, Mr. Seán Kelly, as I am from Waterford. I agree with much of what Senator Sean D. Barrett said on the lethargic approach of the European Union to a range of issues since the economic crisis. We have seen inconsistences in its approach to banking. We in Ireland were forced not to burn the bondholders but Cyprus was forced to burn the bondholders as well as depositors. There are still controls and credit limits on the banks in Cyprus. Europe has not had a coherent approach to the banking situation. There is some move towards a single European banking supervisory body, which we support. We need strong regulation in the banking sector. We also need to ensure the European Central Bank acts as lender of last resort, which has been the missing element since the crisis started. While we have had difficulties with the European Stability Mechanism, we would prefer the European Central Bank to be the body to provide the funding for the ESM. The EU has gone for a different approach but it is still not up and running. We saw that it was not used to capitalise the banks in Cyprus. We still have not got the retrospective deal that will take off our balance sheet and off the shoulders of the taxpayers, all of the banking debt that we hold as sovereign debt. Unfortunately some of this was made sovereign by Mr. Kelly's party by the promissory note as well as the money that was put in by the previous Government.

There is an unemployment crisis across Europe. The level of youth unemployment in Spain is phenomenal as is unemployment generally. Many countries across Europe, to mention just Italy, Portugal and Greece are facing a real crisis in unemployment as we are in this State, with the number of unemployed people stabilising at 14.5%. This is still a significant figure which presents challenges. We need a coherent focus in the European Union and in this State on how to respond to this crisis. That step change must involve some level of easing of austerity. The Government seemed to be moving in that direction and talking about taking €1 billion less in austerity measures next year. That needs to happen. We need a stimulus to create jobs, we need more investment.

I have two quick questions on the domestic situation. With the abolition of the milk quotas, there is a major opportunity in the dairy sector for Munster and the south east. Will Mr. Kelly comment on that? There are major opportunities in beef production and fisheries. The Common Fisheries Policy needs to be reviewed and we must ensure we have a thriving fishing industry that supports many coastal villages.