Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

When the Taoiseach met the Prime Minister of Italy, Paolo Gentiloni, did he discuss the proposals by Italy and others in the original European group that they want to return to a form of federalism and that they will not dilute their federalist plans to keep reluctant members on board? The Taoiseach spoke to me briefly about this previously, and he feels it is part of the normal chat down the decades in the EU, but it is not. It is members of a core group stating they will do it their way. We also have the members of the Visegrad group of eastern European states saying if this happens they will do it their way. Whatever will happen, we all know that in the years to come the EU will not be the same EU as it is today. The Taoiseach's EU strategy is an enigma wrapped in a mystery because we cannot get any details from him. He has bits of chat about various sectors but we lack a sense of strategy. The sense of strategy the Taoiseach must outline, because we are a democracy, is what are his proposals on Ireland and the forthcoming Brexit.

We are still in the dark and while we have had a lot of conversations with the Taoiseach we have had almost no clarity on strategy. We know what his concerns are but we want the strategy.

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