Mary Harney
Ceist:92 Miss Harney asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the statement he made at the opening of the conference on local development at Dublin Castle on Monday, 11 November 1996. [20972/96]
Written Answers. - Local Development Conference.
In addressing the delegates at the Conference on Local Development at Dublin Castle, I covered four main points. They were: (1) the value of the local partnership approach and the very positive impact the local development process in Ireland has had on the co-ordination of the delivery of local services and the tackling of unemployment; (2) that a stable currency is good for jobs and therefore the Irish Presidency has given priority to advancing the single currency process; (3) that crime and personal security may be the major challenges of the 21st century and must be tackled by the joint efforts of member states, to complement positive action at local level and (4) that the primary achievement of the European Union is the peace which it has brought to the nation states of western Europe.
I welcome the fact that the Irish Presidency was in a position to promote local development strategies. I thanked the European Commission for their support of the Irish local development process and for their proposals that territorial employment pacts should play an important role in Europe's employment strategy.