Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have not set a date yet for a vote in the Dáil. We would like to do it sooner rather than later but there is no date set at this stage. Committee hearings are ongoing, as well as court cases. In the first court case the High Court found very much in favour of the Government's position but there is another court case as well. We are not sure what will happen with that or whether there will be an appeal. We wanted to allow time for committees to debate this.

The original plan by Government was to have a vote before Christmas. People asked for more time for committee debates. I am not sure if these debates will change anyone's mind. I hope they do. Maybe they will not, but we are happy to allow that to conclude to a reasonable point. I hope that when the time comes for a vote in the Dáil, Opposition parties will allow us to have that debate and vote, and not try to use any tactic or delaying procedures to prevent us having a democratic debate and vote in the Dáil on this matter.

If we were to definitively refuse to ratify this, that would precipitate a political crisis in the EU because we would be the only country to do that. That would be very much against our interests as a member state and would send out a strong message that Ireland is no longer committed to free trade and enterprise. It would be an enormous mistake on our part if we were to definitively reject a treaty that no other country has rejected.