I would also like to be associated with the congratulations to the Irish team, the managers and the terrific fans. I wish them well on Sunday in Lyon. We will also be able to settle an old score by coming out with a win.

No matter what the outcome of the EU referendum in the UK is, and I hope for a Remain vote, Ireland will continue to be a member of the EU. If the debate in the UK has highlighted anything, it is that there is a growing disconnect between EU institutions and ordinary citizens.

Debates here on the issue, particularly on the Government side, tend to take an uncritical view of those institutions. They are portrayed as universally good, which is at odds with the views of a very large number of our citizens. Irish people are not stupid - they recognise that we are a small nation and cannot survive on our own but they also see we were left to carry the can for 41% of the European banking crash. The crippling debt has not only been imposed on us but on our children and grandchildren if it goes unchallenged.

Irish people can also see that the current refugee crisis and the way people are being treated is at odds with the founding principles of the European Union, one of which is human dignity. There is a deference shown in debates and a mindset that we are somehow subservient because of our size, location and level of indebtedness. We have to throw off that mindset and start approaching the European Union confidently and with a critical eye. The arguments made for both the Single European Act and the Maastricht treaty were predicated on how much we were going to receive in return for passing those referenda. It was only when the first Nice referendum failed that the National Forum on Europe was set up to address the growing disconnect between our citizens and the institutions.

We are now at a critical turning point not because of the prospect of Brexit but the issue of TTIP, which looms large. I urge that we approach this with a very critical eye. TTIP represents a profound transfer of power and a fundamental change to the democratic process that once entered into will not be possible to reverse. It is a tipping point. I have been shocked by the lack of debate on this issue in this Chamber, in the media generally, and by our national broadcaster. We need to be questioning and we need to look at the evidence of similar trade agreements that include dispute mechanisms like the one in TTIP. If we are to take a critical position, which I hope we do, we need to be brave and stand over that position even if we are the only ones to take such a position.

Last night on the football pitch, we saw our team throw off the shackles of the small island mentality and their belief saw them through. We need to take a leaf out of that book on the political stage because we can punch above our weight.

Is the Tánaiste aware that in jurisdictions where trade agreements include this mechanism, such as Canada, the number of claims has risen dramatically? One can see the scale on a graph and the costs are paid from public funds. Has the Tánaiste properly evaluated the new price tag on democracy and regulation? Has she properly considered the new special privileges that will be granted to foreign investors and how those new rights do not come with corresponding responsibility? Does she accept that the possible introduction of TTIP will represent a tipping point for democracy as we know it?

At this point, it would be unwise to speculate on the outcome of the referendum in the UK. Polls appear to show that it will be a close finish. The Government's position is very clear on our preferred outcome. I agree with the Deputy that the debate in the UK has thrown into very sharp relief the citizens' views on the EU, both for and against. It will impact the debate in this country and elsewhere in future in terms of the type of debate we will have and the many issues it has thrown up.

The Deputy mentioned the refugee crisis and the response of Europe to it. It has been a very complex situation. Ireland will have the full resettlement programme in place by the end of September. The relocation programme is now starting to be much more active than it was before. We will have increased numbers of Syrian refugees arriving here and we will be in a position to take up the many offers of help from the public which have been made to the Red Cross. Hopefully we will be able to take up the offers in the coming months as more refugees arrive in Ireland but there was a very slow start right across Europe.

Regarding the point Deputy Catherine Murphy made, that, of course, will have to be approved by the Oireachtas and there will be a full opportunity for debate in the Oireachtas. It is being negotiated in an transparent way. We certainly want to have as full a debate as possible on it. There is no agreement. There is a long way to go. There are certainly benefits that would, I believe, far outweigh the negatives but certainly there will have to be much further engagement. No doubt the points Deputy Catherine Murphy raised will form part of the debate here in the Oireachtas at the appropriate time.