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Comments by Minister Noonan on President Sarkozy & Chancellor Merkel press conference
Comments by Minister Noonan:
I welcome the beginning of this new initiative by President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel which once again reaffirms their absolute determination to defend the euro.
I will be directly feeding Irelands views into the discussions on the proposals at EUROGROUP, Ecofin and at meetings with my other finance minister’s colleagues.
I note that president Herman van Rompuy will be tasked with ensuring a more co-ordinated fiscal approach across the Eurozone. Ireland remains fully committed to reducing our deficit to 3% of GDP by 2015.
Department of Finance has already undertaken detailed work on the preparation of the fiscal responsibility bill and we have recently established a Fiscal Advisory Council. Any proposal for a constitutional amendment is a matter for Government consideration.
I note President Sarkozy indication that the use of guarantees could be considered in the context of future funding for countries.
The Commission already has proposals on CCCTB on the table and Ireland has signaled we are going to constructively engage on this issue. That remains the case.
While I note that the French and German
finance ministers will table a joint proposal at the EU level next September for a tax on financial transactions, this issue was considered at last European council meeting and it was not included in the final agreement.