Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)

On that last point, the Deputy is asking me to predict the outcomes of the negotiations and all I can do is set out our priorities. We want to see the budget that is there maintained. We do not want to see cuts but the Deputy is right when he says there are competing pressures from various sources, not just eastern Europe but in general. On the new sources of revenue, we are not totally opposed to them but they cannot just be replacements of national sources of revenue. We cannot say that Ireland or Spain is taking in this particular tax revenue, that we will now turn that into an EU tax and that the countries lose it while the EU gains it. We will not be supporting that. I want to be very clear about that. There are other potential financial arrangements we could consider but we have to consider them very carefully. There have been a number of own resources brought in at EU level. Apart from the traditional ones like customs and VAT, they do not raise a huge amount of money. There is a plastics levy and some other ones as well that do not raise massive amounts. Generally speaking, we want to see gross national income as the measure and our position will be that gross national income should be used.

On the issue about the culture and media Council, I cannot answer directly on that particular proposed levy. The Deputy would have to ask the relevant Minister but whether we are in a majority or minority on a Council, it will not affect our chairing of it. The idea of the Presidency is to be seen as honest brokers to try to get agreement. On some occasions, we might be on the other side of an agreement - we will try to avoid that - but we will be seen as honest brokers. We will be running the show and progressing European Union files. We have an influence and we have more of an influence when we hold the Presidency. I noticed this and I think other Ministers feel the same that as every day goes by, more and more people want to talk about EU policies. It will be the same for the Deputies here, and it is really important that they use their voices as the European Union affairs committee on various issues in advance of the Presidency too.

On enlargement, the Deputy asked me about institutional reform. If that question was asked in Germany, it could be interpreted as whether we would be prepared to give up our Commissioner? No, I would not be. We need democratic legitimacy. On unanimity, it is alright to say that unanimity is a blocker but if I came in here and said we want to get rid of the veto, there might be another perspective on it. We have achieved a lot with unanimity. I would like to see the requirement for unanimity on some issues changed because at the moment, unanimity is required for every step of the way for a country to join the European Union. Every step of the way, countries like Hungary can say we are not letting this even progress. I do not think that type of veto is necessary because we all have a veto at the end of the day.

I say to countries that if they have issues with other countries, they must bear in mind that for better or for worse, Patrick Hillery and Jack Lynch signed us up to the European Union in February 1972. There were awful things happening on this island in February 1972 and we signed up with Britain. Ultimately, it took a while but we resolved issues with Britain, by and large - not everything of course - through the European Union. We tell current member states and interested member states that if they have bilateral issues between them, they are not as bad as what was happening in Ireland in 1972. Yet, we were able to resolve issues over time. Of course, it took time. I think I answered most questions there to give a general idea of it.