Madam President, Commissioner, when we in Ireland signed up for economic and monetary union, we accepted the central tenet of economic and monetary union, namely closer coordination of economic and budgetary policies of Member States. The key elements in this process are the stability and growth pact, which is at the heart of economic policy coordination. Secondly, we have the annual, and I underline annual, broad economic policy guidelines – a lesser known element of the economic policy development process. As well as European-wide, there are country-specific guidelines identifying policy priorities and particular circumstances. Commissioner, I was listening carefully to see if I could extract from what you said precisely what breaches of the country-specific guidelines Ireland is guilty of to warrant the recommendations of the Ecofin Council under Article 99 of the Treaty, last Monday, at your behest. Our finance minister, Charlie McCreevy, told the Irish Parliament this week that he had no problem with advice to Ireland setting out the Council's view of the appropriate policy mix to achieve economic stability. But he felt this view should have taken the form of an opinion, as in the normal course, particularly in view of the comparative performance of the Irish economy relative to other EU Member States. An opinion, Commissioner, rather than a recommendation. Was a recommendation an even-handed and proportionate response? Would not an opinion have sufficed, given the very heavy political fall-out from the recommendation in Ireland, where we are in an election year and very likely face a referendum on Nice, this episode has been oats to the eurosceptics. And the same applies elsewhere, particularly in the United Kingdom. There is also nervousness about the Commission's involvement in tax policy generally in the post-Nice situation. This latest episode does not help. I fail to see why Ireland's transgressions could not have been handled more tactfully, more diplomatically, with more understanding – both by you, Commissioner, and indeed by our somewhat maverick, though genial, finance minister. To many observers it appears to have been in the end about egos and macho behaviour all round – all in the context of an economic turnaround in Ireland in the last six to seven years that is the envy of many. The charge is that Ireland is to seek to achieve economic stability and, in that context, our last budget was deemed to be over-inflationary. There are occasions when 'a one size fits all' economic model does not fit. The biggest threat to Ireland at the moment is wage inflation fuelled by 75,000 job vacancies. Securing the continuation of social partnership with our unions, employers, farmers and government and, through it, wage moderation has to be a priority for our government given its huge contribution to our economic success over many years. I agree that a 10% increase in the GDP per annum is not sustainable, given the pressure on labour supply and house prices. But even IBEC, our employers' confederation, has said that our budget must be understood in the context of social partnership. If I had to point to one single factor that has contributed more than any other to the turnaround in the Irish economy, I would have to cite the Social Partners' Agreement which allowed us to trade competitively in the single market and to attract inward investment because of the stability it brought to wage negotiations. I regret the unseemly public debate over the censure, the lack of diplomacy in handling this issue by both sides and the very negative political fallout that has ensued. Time does not allow me to run the numbers of Irish economic success. I have no doubt my colleagues coming after me will do so.

Political group: PPE-DE