Thomas Pringle TD – ‘ never waste the opportunity provided by a crisis. It certainly seems that is what the European Union is going to do throughout this crisis.’

The Taoiseach said earlier that what we should see coming out of this is a fully functioning Single Market. I would love to know what he means by that and if he would explain it to the House because it is a very interesting statement. What I take it to mean, and what I take the judgment of the German constitutional court to mean, is that we will have to move to far-reaching European economic union, where, basically, this Parliament will be a county council and we will take our measures from Europe.

Some would argue that perhaps we are already and that we just take whatever they tell us and get on with it. At the time of the bailout, we took our medicine and got on with it and sacrificed the Irish people, our housing and our homeless in order to ensure that Europe moved forward.

Will the Minister of State clearly lay out the Government’s stance on this, because it is very important? Over the next 18 months we will see a European treaty change to broaden and increase the powers Europe has. Is this what the Government will support and call for?

Many economists believe the only way to resolve the tensions around the ECB’s mandate is to amend the EU treaties to both broaden the bank’s purview and to give the eurozone fiscal powers, which would make the currency area less dependent on the ECB in times of crisis.