Thomas Byrne

We remain a neutral country and this legislation will not change this, despite all of the shouting and fighting and arguing and misinformation in Dáil.

It’s not correct to say that we’re being dishonest about this, and it’s not correct to say that we’re joining a military alliance. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

The magic of the negotiations that we're trying to effect here is to make sure we have a package where everybody can win, the European Union wins, and therefore the people of Europe win.

It’s crucial because we're talking about member states saying they're paying too much, and one way to bridge that gap is to have [New] Own Resources.

I can't give any assurances to anybody at this time because we're in the throes of the negotiations.

That's why it's absolutely important that we see today where the compromises can be reached, where red lines are really being drawn, and how we can actually all, as European citizens, be winners out of this process.

I'm absolutely confident we can achieve this by the end of the year because I think we need to, and the reason we need to is because we need to have the funds in place by the 1 January 2028.

Icelandic people voted the way they did, what can we do? They made the decision.

Neither does anybody here in Ireland," he said.