David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

A very strong answer should go to Trichet. At that stage of course we had room for manoeuvre. We could have said, as Deputy Adams so eloquently stated, "bugger off" and let the whole European system collapse and bring the whole bloody lot down with us. That is what we should have done. It was a game of chicken and we chickened out first. This is regrettable. James Joyce's masterpiece, Ulysses, pays tribute to the establishment and completion of the great Vartry water scheme in 1904.

That is about the last time anybody did anything about it in this country, except for tinkering with maintenance. Here is another situation where we have got our independence and we have done diddly squat since the British left. It makes me wonder what we are celebrating in 2016. I will not be here for it as I am going abroad.