Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)

This is an extraordinarily important day for the euro, but it is also an extraordinarily important day for Ireland. We should not confuse the two issues which, although separate, are intertwined. My primary interest lies in the role the Taoiseach will play when he gets to Brussels from Marseilles tonight. I am concerned about what he will do in the interests of Ireland and with ensuring he will not be stampeded in moving away from Ireland's interest to save the euro. We are in a crisis. In the past few days, as everybody in the House knows, not only has there been frenzied political activity around Europe, among the heads of Europe and officials in the European Community, there has also been a sensational and unhelpful - in terms of finding a solution - downgrading of European banks by Standard and Poor's, the timing of which is something about which we must be suspicious. It certainly looks as if it was aimed at torpedoing a solution or, certainly, putting enormous pressure on people to come to a certain solution.

I am very worried that the Taoiseach will be powerless in the negotiations he will enter into in the next few days. The record of the Government on negotiations with the European Union, the troika and others in recent months has been feeble and craven. We only have to look at the extraordinary flamboyance shown in saying at one stage that it would burn the bondholders and then, having talked to the ECB and been told it could do this, accepting it. My first demand and request to the Taoiseach is as follows. If he intends to put Irish interests first, the first item he should put on the table is the issue of the Irish debt. The strongest and most important card we have to play is that because I have not come across a reputable economist who thinks that at any stage, we will be able to pay off the Irish debt. It is a debt which will be restructured. There must be a change in it or we will default. It is time the Taoiseach took advantage of this critical day and these fragile negotiations to say that one of our demands is that the Irish debt is on the table and that we want a write-off of that debt. That is not an unreasonable demand. The masters of the European banks are dictating the pace of the talks tonight and decided to put us in this debt in that irresponsible way. The meetings this evening and tomorrow is the forum to put that debt on the table and to demand a write-off of it as a price for an agreement.

I listened to what the Tánaiste had to say on the Order of Business. We are, in theory, equals among 27 member states but if we are equals, we should be fearless and we should put Irish debt on the table because it makes the other 26 feel uncomfortable. The last thing they want to hear tonight at the dinner or tomorrow is Ireland coming forward and saying all right but Irish debt is on the table, so pick it up.

I am very wary of what is happening tonight and tomorrow. The big meeting tonight is a dinner and the big meeting tomorrow is a plenary. Bloomberg and Reuters have reported that before the meeting tonight, there is a pre-summit meeting. Who will be at it? According to the Reuters report, it will include the chairman of the euro Finance Ministers, Jean-Claude Junker, the chairman of EU summits, Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, the EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner, Oli Rehn, Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and the president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi.

Why are all the top European apparatchiks setting up a meeting before the 27 meet? Why are Merkel and Sarkozy the only two insiders invited to that meeting? What is happening in Europe is quite clear. This may not be a stitch up, because they may not be able to get it through, but the intention of the top eurocrats and the Chancellor of Germany and the President of France is clear - they are going to dictate the pace and set an agenda before the meeting which can be accepted or refused. That is why that meeting is happening.

All the top apparatchiks and the two people dictating the pace in Europe are meeting before the meetings today and tomorrow. What does that tell us? It tells us quite simply who is in charge. There is an increasing tendency, which we saw this week, for the eurocrats to dictate the pace and tell us what will happen. The report from Herman Van Rompuy, an unelected eurocrat, said not to worry, that he had a solution to this problem, that they would get treaty changes through without any need for a referendum, that Ireland is a bit of a problem but that they would bypass it. Let us hope the Taoiseach does not agree to any of that little trickery. Mr. Van Rompuy did not just say that. He said they would get it through with an obscure device, at which I think some of the others have baulked at this stage, without referendums in Ireland or in any of the other member states and without even consulting any of their parliaments. That was the proposal early yesterday morning.

If all 27 leaders agree unanimously to fundamental treaty changes, which would lead to fiscal unity, we would not have to have a debate on it next week . It would not have to go through the French Parliament, the German Parliament or any other one. It would be simple and would be agreed by the 27. Something cooked up this evening by non-elected European officials would be agreed and democracy would be bypassed. That is unacceptable and I hope the Tánaiste will assure us it will not be allowed to happen tonight or tomorrow.

The agenda for fiscal unity is undoubtedly there. The two leaders want fiscal unity. That means giving up our economic sovereignty. The Tánaiste may say we do not have any economic sovereignty - I think he has said that many times - but it means we will give it up permanently when the treaty changes go through. The other agenda is what they call "harmonised tax". It was the tax base that was in the letter from Sarkozy and Merkel to Van Rompuy yesterday. Let me remind Members that the Taoiseach said on 16 March of this year that the tax base and any alteration to it was the back door to any changes to the tax rate. I do not believe he has changed that view and he was right to hold it. There is undoubtedly an agenda for fiscal unity which means tax harmonisation which means that Ireland would lose its corporate tax rate and its right to it. I ask the Taoiseach to promise us that he will use the veto, make any change to our corporate tax rate absolutely non-negotiable and reiterate his view that any change to the corporate tax base is the back door to change in the tax rate.

This weekend we are in danger of giving up our independence on a permanent basis. The euro must be protected and defended but Irish interests must come first. The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, is making life very difficult for the other European leaders because he is playing the nationalist card. We need to play it more than he does. We are in danger of losing our sovereign independence and our corporate tax rate and we should use the veto to ensure this does not happen.

There is a point of view on this side of the House that democracy is being sacrificed on the alter of the markets, and I say that as a free marketeer. However, as free marketeers, we must not be prepared to sacrifice the democratic wishes of our people and other peoples in a panic because the markets have put us in that situation.

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