Sean Barrett (Independent)

We have now had 20 summits on the eurozone crisis. The latest continued for nine hours and has been adjourned until October.

The Ministers at those conferences have kicked the can down the road so often they could go to a concert in the Phoenix Park and fit in with the other people attending. We have to move away from the nods and winks, and the "It will be all right on the night" style of governance. In the Financial Times yesterday, Wolfgang Munchau stated that the eurozone crisis will last for 20 years. He stated:

The message I took away from the summit is that the eurozone will not resolve the crisis. In that sense, it was indeed a "historic" meeting.

We need to know whether we are looking for €32 billion, €64 billion or as much as €279 billion, which, according to the University of Limerick study, is the figure we owe on the covered debts of Irish banks. As a result of so many people failing to solve the crisis for the 20th time we need an independent council of economic advisers at European Union level, rather like our fiscal council.