Do you want to see a United States of Europe? Do you want to see a single European government? Do you want to see political power centralised in Brussels? Do you want to see all major social and economic decisions made at European level by majority voting?

Whatever your view, I think you will agree that these are very important questions, and I welcome the fact that we are now having a proper debate in Ireland about the issue of further European integration.

Democracy is all about difference. All political parties have their own distinctive views on major issues, including Europe, and it is right that they should have a chance to air those views in public and put their policies before the people. Some commentators seem to believe that there should be no debate at all on the issue of Europe.

I would like to make the position of my own party clear at the outset.

We have always been committed Europeans and we remain so. We have supported every referendum on Europe which has been held in this State. Unlike the Labour Party, we never at any stage opposed Irish membership of what is now the European Union.

We support enlargement of the EU and we believe that an expansion of the Union is essential if we are to consolidate democracy and guarantee peace and prosperity in Europe. We recognise the huge gains which have flowed to Ireland from our membership of the EU and its continuing vital importance for our economy.

As economic liberals we recognise the beneficial impact of European competition policy which has delivered significant dividends for Irish consumers.

In short, we are enthusiastic Europeans, but we believe the future of the EU lies not in a United States of Europe but in a Union of independent sovereign states.

Foreign commentators tend to highlight farm subsidies and structural funds as the State's main benefits from EU membership. I believe they are missing the point.

The most important benefit that Ireland derived from EU membership was that it opened the minds and broadened the vision of our politicians, public servants and private-sector decision-makers. It also enabled us to define ourselves in the world in a new way that went beyond our relationship with the neighbouring island.

The major economic gain for Ireland has been our access to the single European market, the largest and most lucrative in the world. It is this which gave us the opportunity to achieve enormous growth in exports. It is this which gave us the opportunity to attract a hugely disproportionate share of US investment into Europe. And it is this which gave us the opportunity to close the gap in living standards between ourselves and the rest of the European Union.

It is to our credit that in the last few years we have been able to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by our EU membership. And we have been able to do so because, notwithstanding our membership of the Union, we have retained a very considerable degree of economic independence.

It is because we have generally used that independence wisely that we have been able to convert opportunity into achievement and to effect a total transformation of the Irish economy.

While the major economies in continental Europe remained wedded to an outmoded philosophy of high taxation and heavy regulation which condemns millions of their people to unemployment we in Ireland in recent years have pursued an altogether different course.

We cut corporation tax rates. We cut capital tax rates. We cut personal tax rates. And what happened? The number of people at work surged; the number of people out of work plummeted; and the level of long-term unemployment has fallen dramatically.

When the present Government took office three years ago there were 90,000 people - one in every 20 workers - in long-term unemployment. Today that figure is down to just 27,000, and we are well on course to achieve the effective elimination of long-term joblessness within the lifetime of this administration.

All this was possible because we had control of our own tax policies. We have resisted pressure from Brussels for tax harmonisation and we have maintained the right to set our own tax rates. This is absolutely vital to our ability to promote entrepreneurship and job-creating investment in the Irish economy.

In general, an enlarged Union will not work if all power is ceded to the centre and if member-states are deprived of their fiscal independence. I do not want to see a situation in Ireland where we have to import the kind of job-destroying policies which are keeping millions of people on the dole right across continental Europe, just when many of the more open member-states are searching for ways to modify or abandon such policies.

A couple of months back I was criticised by Opposition politicians for suggesting that Ireland was spiritually closer to Boston than Berlin. Our economic success owes more to American liberalism than to European leftism.

But we in Ireland have not followed either model slavishly. Instead, we have sought to build an economy which is more enterprise-friendly than the European model but which provides a more comprehensive safety net than the American one. This has allowed us to chart our own path to prosperity.

What we have demonstrated clearly is that there need be no tension between enterprise and inclusion, no contradiction between a compassionate society and a competitive economy.

The issues of integration and enlargement tend to become confused in the European debate. I am a strong supporter of EU enlargement. Joining the Union can transform the social and economic prospects of aspirant member-states in central, eastern and southern Europe.

Many of these are small, poor countries. Their situation is not unlike ours when we first joined the EEC almost 30 years ago. As one of the smaller member-states in the existing Union we in Ireland have a vested interest in more small countries joining the EU.

We in Ireland have benefited from financial transfers from the wealthier states to us. Now, as we move from being net beneficiaries to net contributors to the EU budget, it is incumbent on us to show solidarity with others less fortunate than ourselves. We must help to ensure, via EU transfers, that the new member-states can make the same great leap forward that Ireland has.

Enlargement is perhaps the best protection against excessive integration. The more countries that join the EU the more diverse the Union becomes and the less amenable it becomes to over-centralised decision-making. On the other hand enlargement will significantly expand the single European market and create new opportunities for all the citizens of Europe.

We in Ireland should be enthusiastic about enlargement but cautious about further integration. I look forward to a vigorous debate on the real issues.

Mary Harney is Tanaiste and leader of the Progressive Democrats