Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

I echo all of the comments and compliments that have been paid to our former colleague in this House. He has done extremely well since his time here and he has our good wishes.

Within the context of the debate about Ireland's role and continuing involvement in the European experiment, would the Minister of State agree that we are at a crossroads? If one looks back to our entry into the then Common Market, we were on the periphery of Europe and we were economically backward. The main issue of the day was agriculture. I recall the late Brian Lenihan, the Leader's brother, addressing a meeting in my constituency of Carrick-on-Shannon, where he said that if Ireland did not join the Common Market, the country would be bankrupt at one minute past midnight. He used graphic images to concentrate people's minds. It was not necessarily true that the country would be bankrupt, but it showed where Ireland's interests lay because of our ties with Britain.