Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am very disappointed in the Taoiseach's speech because it fails to address the one issue which is on everybody's lips and on everybody's mind, that is, the Anglo Irish Bank promissory notes and the legacy debt. I was even more disappointed when I read the following sentence: "We need to ensure that national interests do not outweigh broader EU interests". If one is President of the European Union, there is very little point in not using that to one's advantage. There seems to be a great temptation on the part of the Irish Government to use this as a photo opportunity and the evidence for that is in the media every day. This is our great opportunity, at a time of crisis, not to talk about the MFF being top of the agenda, achieving this and that for Europe, as contained in the speech, but to wear the green jersey and to play for Ireland. It is time, as Deputy Boyd Barrett said, to say that at the top of the agenda will be the Anglo Irish Bank promissory notes, to put that in the European pipe and let them smoke it.

It is time that we used the position we are in to our advantage. Imagine the French, with their great tradition of selfish, chauvinistic nationalism, being in the pickle we are in now and not using the Presidency of the European Union to their own advantage. If it means being obstructive of EU business, let us be obstructive because we are in a crisis situation. We need to go to the European Council meetings and insist that at the top of the agenda are the two matters that are vital to Ireland, which are squeezing the blood and oxygen out of the country. They are the Anglo Irish Bank promissory notes, on which we demand a write-off, and the EU legacy debt, where we are being betrayed by the day. Long-fingering Ireland has gone on for long enough. Here we are, in this key position, towing the French and German line, day after day.

I make a plea to the Tánaiste not to go to South America to issue threats of a general election. He should issue such threats in Europe and should do so publicly, if that is what he believes. That is the only language which will be understood in this critical situation in which we find ourselves. I beg the Tánaiste to take these current negotiations to every single forum and not to be on the back foot. He must take the Anglo debt issue to Europe and make it Europe's problem, not ours.

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