Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have listened to a large number of these debates since I came into the Dáil and there is a similarity about them that is depressing. The conclusion one comes to every time one reads a speech from a Minister or the Taoiseach is that Ireland is a passenger on the European train and that we do not really count. I wonder sometimes what happens when the Irish delegation arrives. Perhaps the Minister of State can tell us. Does Mrs. Merkel turn around and say, "God, we had better listen to these guys. These guys are boat rockers - they are going to make us stand up and think"? Quite the opposite, it appears. One could excuse the utterly cowardly attitude, with the anonymous, voiceless Irish delegation saying nothing that would rock the boat, at a time when we were in extraordinary debt to Europe and dependent upon it for everyday funding. Now, however, we are apparently out of the European doghouse and are prospering. We are the poster boy of Europe, but we are still refusing to take a lead on any issue at all. I ask the Minister of State to point out to the House one example in which Ireland has said "This is wrong and we must do the following" - an example of Ireland taking a position of leadership at the European table.

What one sees in Europe at the moment is the management of a series of crises. We had the crisis in Greece, at which time we disgraced ourselves by hiding behind the big powers while we watched Greece falter in a sea of debt. Now Europe and Ireland are pretending that the Greek situation is resolved, but this particular problem is going to come back to bite us time and again because of the attitude that has been taken. As Deputy Adams has said, the debt is still there and it is enormous and unpayable, but no-one is facing up to that. Ireland is relieved that the Greeks have not embarrassed us by actually getting a massive default, which would have made us look utterly stupid.

Crisis management in other areas was responded to by the Taoiseach in his speech today with the assertion that Ireland's attitude in each instance - to the Greek, migrant and UK crises - is one of being "pragmatic." Pragmatic is an old Fianna Fáil word and means that one is not guided by any principles but by "whatever you're having yourself" on the day. That is the one characteristic that runs through the Irish attitude to all of these crises.

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