Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The ECB would like the entire debt to be converted into normal sovereign debt but we should absolutely refuse to do this. After a year and a half of false dawns, non-existent technical papers - we have never been able to get a hold of that technical paper between the troika and the Taoiseach because it probably never existed - and distractions, it is time for the Taoiseach to actually undertake the long-promised diplomatic initiative. He cannot keep waiting for others to do the work or for things to get so bad that Europe has no alternative.

President Van Rompuy has circulated a draft set of principles rather than decisions about the future management of economic and financial matters at European level. Most of his proposals should be strongly supported by Ireland. The proposed single supervisory mechanism, SSM, for the financial system is an obvious necessity. We should oppose attempts to limit this to just the largest pan-European banks. We should also strongly support a uniform bank resolution regime, including deposit insurance. This is being opposed in some countries on the basis that they do not want to pay for failings elsewhere. What they are missing is that one way or the other, within a currency union, one cannot expect to feel no impact from what happens in other member countries. Directly or indirectly, there will be a financial hit and it is better that the risk of this be limited by having a deposit insurance and resolution regime which gives confidence to the wider system. Just as the OMT facility has reduced everyone's cost of borrowing, it is a case where a joint guarantee makes the guarantee less likely to ever be needed.

The document to be discussed also refers to the need for increased fiscal capacity for the euro zone. Translated into real speech, this means that there should be a larger budget which can be used to help regions with big economic problems. I welcome this proposal which has been made in the face of the opposition of stronger countries. I hope the Taoiseach will support the proposal, although his speech was somewhat ambiguous in regard to it. Without a much larger budget to transfer resources between states, the eurozone will be all about control and will fail to give a credible path to growth for all of its members. It is being proposed that leaders will agree a time-bound roadmap for agreement on reforms over the coming months. This is reasonable but it is not reasonable to exclude Parliaments and wider European society from these discussions.

When regular statements in advance of European Council meetings were introduced, it was a development welcomed by everyone in the House. The Taoiseach explained that it would involve a real exchange between the Government and the Opposition during which he would outline in detail the Government's approach to upcoming summits. As with nearly every piece of reform proposed by this Government, the reality has been very different. In almost 19 months of these sessions, the Taoiseach has yet to give the House a single piece of information not already in the public domain. In some cases, the Taoiseach has refused to give detailed replies to questions at exactly the same time that his staff have been sent out to provide the relevant information to a journalist - always accompanied by ridiculous and self-serving spin. On other occasions, we have had to go to Brussels to obtain information withheld by the Taoiseach.

In the middle of the never-ending search for short-term headlines, what has now become clear is that this Government has no European policy, except the hope that things turn out all right. It waits until outcomes become clear before saying anything and then rushes out to find new ways of praising its own efforts. The now undeniable reality is that the Taoiseach has opted out of the level of diplomatic activity within the European Union undertaken by all of his predecessors for the past 40 years. He and his senior Ministers have delegated profoundly important negotiations to officials while failing completely to outline and promote Ireland's position on nearly every fundamental issue being discussed by the Union. On issues of both immediate and longer-term importance, this non-engagement strategy has already caused damage. The failure to prepare for June's deal on sovereign debt and the further failure to follow it up has allowed an opportunity to become a new crisis.

Since August of last year, deep reforms of the Union designed to save it and the euro have been on the agenda.

At no stage since then have the Taoiseach or Tánaiste stated what Ireland is specifically seeking in these reforms. During the negotiation of the fiscal treaty, the only thing they sought was that it be worded in a way to try to avoid us needing to have a referendum, something they thankfully failed in achieving.

Since early this year the President of the European Council has been preparing proposals for further structural reform of the Union, including possible treaty changes. These proposals are now due to be presented for fast-track negotiation. Instead of setting out a national position like every leader, the Taoiseach told the House that he would wait to see the proposals before giving his opinion. That has been the trend the whole way through, before and after the fiscal treaty referendum and now into the present set of proposals and negotiations on the reform agenda. The European Union has been the most successful multinational organisation in history. It brought peace to a conflict-riven continent and enabled living standards unimaginable in the past. It deserves to have this history acknowledged and it deserves better from its leaders.

Greater urgency, ambition and solidarity is required if Europe is genuinely to return to growth and job creation. Leaders like the Taoiseach need to stop sitting back and start engaging with each other in a meaningful way. This week’s summit and its agenda does not reflect the seriousness of the crisis facing the Union. It is another wasted opportunity, which we may soon regret.

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