Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)

The Taoiseach's speech reads as if it were written by a eurocrat rather than someone from Ireland. It reads as an apologia for a Government that will go into next week's meeting and hoist the white flag. It reads as if it were written by someone who will not wear the green jersey, as I urge him to do, when he attends the European Council meeting on 9 December. It is important that we stop apologising for what happened in the past. We must declare that we are an independent nation which will not lie down and accept the premise that fiscal union is coming. As I stated during Leaders' Questions yesterday, we must not become embroiled in a fiscal union debate and surrender. If we do so, the independence that was temporarily sacrificed by the last Government - the Taoiseach said in his speech that he wants to "get back to economic independence" - will be permanently surrendered rather than temporarily sacrificed. Fiscal union would mean that the taxation and economic independence of this country would go somewhere else.

See this speech in context