The Dáil resumes - Last chance to control our future

IT is not an exaggeration to say the most important Dáil session in the lifetime of any living Irish person opens this afternoon.

By its end we will know whether we have any real prospect of continuing to enjoy the sovereignty we took for granted for so very long. The sovereignty we imagined was a permanent right that need not be nurtured, honoured or protected. The sovereignty and independence that was so hard won, so empowering and the independence that we have, more or less, squandered in half a decade of hubris.

At the end of this session we will know if we can be numbered among the viable, functioning nations or whether we have to join the long and sorry list of societies that have had to turn to the mercies of the International Monetary Fund or the European Central Bank for their very survival. We will know if we have any prospect of sustaining, or more accurately, returning to the lifestyles and the ambitions that were absolutely unremarkable even two years ago.