Vol. 407 No. 6
4 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Taoiseach if, having regard to the conclusions of the Rome Summit on the matter, he will outline his views, on the possible establishment of a mechanism for the defence of European citizens' rights as regards European Community matters namely, a European Ombudsman; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
5 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Taoiseach if he will outline his policy with regard to the conclusion of the Rome Summit that the concept of equality of opportunity for all Community citizens should be enshrined in the treaty governing the European Communities; if he will outline the way this Treaty provision might affect educational and other social policies which govern equality of opportunity both within states and within Europe as a whole; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
6 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Taoiseach if he will outline his position in relation to the creation of a concept of European citizenship, having regard to the conclusions of the Rome Summit on the matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 4 to 6, inclusive, together.
I set out my views on the concept of Community citizenship in my report to the House on 1 November 1990 on the Special Meeting of the European Council in Rome on 27-28 October 1990. I said that I welcomed the proposal to see, covered in the amended Treaty, the question of citizens' rights and also that, in general, we should support an evolution of the concept of Community citizenship.
In line with these views, the Government have, in the intergovernmental conference taken a positive view on the conclusion in the Treaty of appropriately framed provisions for a Community ombudsman and for equality of treatment. It is, however, too early to judge whether there will be agreement to include such provisions in the Treaty or how these would operate.
Would the Taoiseach agree that it is very hard to conceive of the idea of equality of citizenship between somebody who has their education given to them in a class of 35 and somebody else in another part of Europe who has their education given to them in a class of 20? Would the Taoiseach, therefore, not agree that it makes sense that the Community, if it believes in the concept of equality of citizenship and opportunity, should be prepared to contribute towards the cost of education in member states?
I doubt if any such principle would find very wide acceptance at this stage but, as I said to the Deputy's colleague, I think that our efforts in this regard and in all these areas should be directed at having adequate and comprehensive policies for economic and social cohesion with suitable back-up mechanisms.
Could I urge the Taoiseach to be somewhat more ambitious in his vision of what Europe can achieve than he seems to be in the reply he has just given?
This idea of Community citizenship was put forward by Spain in the first instance and from the time this concept was enunciated we have been full supporters of it.
Would the Taoiseach agree that there is a danger that this attitude that some countries hold, that we as a country approach Europe with the begging bowl, can put this country at an unfair disadvantage in so far as that what is not being said is that the Irish taxpayers pay a considerable amount of money educating people who are the greatest asset in most European countries in the creation of wealth within those countries? Would the Taoiseach agree that in our efforts to bring our standards up these countries have an obligation to support us in terms of education and other services?
Hear, hear.
It is an argument which most of us have used from time to time but it might not be one which would find general acceptance in the Community. I reiterate that in both political union and economic and monetary union, particularly in economic and monetary union, what we must try to achieve is positive active policies in the Community designed to ensure economic and social cohesion, designed to ensure, by specific action if necessary that the benefits of economic and monetary union are distributed equally throughout the Community particularly the peripheral regions, and that there should be positive mechanisms to ensure that those policies are implemented and achieve results. How far the principle of economic and social cohesion stretches is another matter. Whether it would stretch into areas like education or not still has to be decided.
In relation to economic and social cohesion which is obviously extremely important to this country, surely the Taoiseach is aware that the Commission is denying that there is a real link between EMU and regional imbalances? Does he accept this view from the Commission or have we an alternative view? Are we trying to put forward an alternative view because of the importance to this country?
We put forward very positive views already to the EMU IGC setting out how we believe economic and social cohesion should be implemented in the economic and monetary union. I dealt with this in Killarney last Saturday at some length.
We are sorry to trouble you again.
I was thinking of faxing a copy, but I could not remember your fax number. The Commission has actually given two different views on this matter. On one occasion they gave the view that there is no doubt EMU would bring an overall considerable increase in the economic prosperity of the Community but that there was no a priori reason for thinking that that would be distributed evenly throughout the Community. Later on they gave another view which says that they were convinced that the peripheral regions would definitely gain most out of economic and monetary union.
Question No. 7.
May I——
Please, Deputy Bruton. Let us proceed to other questions.
I want to ask only one question. How can the Taoiseach claim that we are making any progress towards economic and social cohesion when there is 19½ per cent unemployment and 136,000 people have emigrated since he took office?
I do not see the relevance of that——
That is the problem.
——because economic and social cohesion is a principle — if the Deputy does not understand it — which refers to the relationship between all the member states and their cohesion with each other in the economic and social areas.
It is a policy which envisages the distribution of the products and benefits of economic and monetary union evenly throughout the Community.
And jobs.
For the benefit of the Deputy, I should like to point out that the Governor of the Central Bank said recently that under the two programmes, the Programme for National Recovery and the present programme initiated by this Government and their predecessors, this country had moved much more rapidly towards achieving equality with the rest of Europe than at any other time since our membership, and that includes the time when the Deputy had disastrous consequences——
We now have record unemployment and record emigration.
He seems to forget that unemployment during his time was higher than it is today——
It was never higher.
——but not alone that, that this country was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy when he ran away.
Rubbish.
Question No. 7.
Is the Taoiseach aware——
If Deputies want to debate this matter they will have to find another time. Question No. 7.
Please, Sir, the Taoiseach has made a number of inaccurate statements to which you must allow me to reply.
Deputy Bruton, I have given you——
I implore you in the interests of fairness in this House to allow me to reply.
A brief question.
He is being deliberately provocative.
Is the Deputy casting a reflection upon the Chair?
I was saying that the Taoiseach was being deliberately provocative. I was not referring to the Chair.
I would hope not.
A quick retreat.
I should like to advise the Taoiseach that twice as many people have emigrated from this country during the past four years as emigrated during the previous four years. That is his record so far as emigration is concerned. It is twice as bad as anything achieved before——
The Deputy will have to debate this another time. Question No. 7, please.
Unemployment is at an all-time high.
If the Deputy had his way in his famous budget they would have left the country without even shoes on their feet.
Is something the matter with the Taoiseach today?
