Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

France, the Netherlands and Germany have not ratified it. I believe in the Netherlands it is because the government does not have a majority in their Senate. It is not true to say that we would be the only country that we would hold this up. There is a sense of urgency coming from the Minister and he says he wants it done as soon as possible, etc., but I do not get that this is necessary. I do not understand what is driving this. Much of it is in operation at the moment. Equally, there are countries that have not ratified it and one country has voted not to ratify it, whether it is not now or ever. I still do not understand what is creating this pressing need.