Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)

I would like to echo what my colleagues have said in wishing the Taoiseach well at tomorrow's vital summit. I am a little concerned about the message he sent in his speech. There seemed to be a complacency about this meeting that did not exist two days ago, before Mrs. Merkel said yesterday that Germany does not expect a sudden solution to be found on Thursday. We need a sudden solution and we need it now. The Taoiseach said "the crisis in the euro area will not be resolved overnight". The Taoiseach and I know that Ireland is very close to midnight. That is not what Mrs. Merkel is saying. We should not doff the cap to her so often. The markets are saying clearly that Greece is bankrupt and is going to default, that Portugal is going to default and that Ireland is going to default. There should be no shame in defaulting if that is necessary. No shame on our part is attached to the fact that our rogue bankers borrowed money from European banks.

The Irish taxpayer must not be held to ransom in Europe tomorrow by the Taoiseach. No concessions should be made. We do not need what the Taoiseach carefully called "a measured debate" in here today. We need a passionate debate which says we are going to Europe with the message that Ireland comes first. I am distressed by the pattern that was evident again when we listened to what Mrs. Merkel had to say yesterday. The emphasis in the Irish voice moved from a sudden and immediate emergency to a direct reflection of what Mrs. Merkel had to say. We do not need to do that. We are almost whistling past the graveyard at this stage. It will not be good enough to hear the mantra or message of "we will do a little better on the interest rates" once more.

We should bear in mind that the Minister for Finance said a few weeks ago that the interest rate does not matter very much at this stage. He said that as an excuse at a time when he was not being very successful, but he was right. The importance of the interest rate issue is diminishing by the day. We should not hear about how the fund will get bigger, or how the maturities will be extended. The problem is far greater than that. This summit should produce results for Ireland and for Europe. We cannot postpone it any further because the markets will not tolerate it. The message from the markets after each of the recent big summits and each announcement has been to give the thumbs-down to Ireland, Greece and Portugal. The bond yields have headed up after each solution because it was a fudge. I ask the Taoiseach to take to Brussels the message that Ireland is not ashamed to advocate default in the context of a structured and agreed default within the European context. He should emphasise that we need surgery, rather than a band aid.

I repeat my earlier call for the Dáil to sit on Friday or Monday so Members have an opportunity to hear from the Taoiseach and question him about what happened at this summit, which might be the most important conference ever held in the EU.

I do not believe in the normal cry from members of the Opposition for us to come during the holidays, but this is the most important event that has happened in the Taoiseach's term in office and it would not be too much to ask that he comes back here and that we have an opportunity to find out what happened at that conference.

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