Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I know Deputy Cowen was not able to be here. I dealt with that in my formal remarks and I will give him a copy of them. To repeat, I had made a formal statement in the Seanad a couple of weeks ago - I cannot remember exactly how long ago - before the summit asserting my judgment that given the timeframe imposed on us by the availability, for example, of the supports system - for example, the developers here, if they did manage to get a project up and running, were dependent on the British supports system, not the Irish ones - the 2020 deadline would apply. I expressed my view that I found it difficult to see, given the lead-in time, how that could be delivered as envisaged. A week later, ten days later or whatever it was, the two Prime Ministers met in London on a number of agenda items and at that meeting, they agreed to ask the two Ministers whether they could look at an alternative architecture to facilitate conclusion of the IGA, and that is what we have been examining.

If Deputy Cowen is asking me if I have changed my mind, I would have to say that my best assessment of the information in my possession is that I have not changed my mind. It is difficult to envisage how we can comply with that deadline. I can certainly promise the Deputy - 23 May, for some reason, is on his radar - that I will personally have an answer delivered to him before that date. I hope that is satisfactory.