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

The first phase of the campaign was to get people to believe the programme was not ending on schedule but that an exit was being negotiated. The next phase is to avoid defining specific objectives for a post-bailout back-stop and the final target is to hail whatever happens as a significant victory.

The Government has refused to level with the people on how much a back-stop might be worth to Ireland; it is refusing to give commentators and the public alike any fair basis for assessing what emerges. Until this is done, all we can be sure of is that the Government is again putting political strategy ahead of everything else.

The media-first policy of the Government was also seen in the summit's discussion of banking union. On the day the Taoiseach spoke to the Dáil, he chose to leak his letter to other leaders to journalists rather than publish it in order that we and the public could ask questions. In a session such as this that letter was not revealed. It was not circulated, which shows the primacy of the Government's focus. It is about media management heading into the meetings, etc., and the issue was not even dealt with here transparently by the Taoiseach.

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