merrion street

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.