Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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The traditional way of doing it is to stand back and let the Commission go off and enter into an agreement with Kazakhstan. We would then decide afterwards whether to opt in to that agreement. At that stage, however, we would have no say or vote on whether it should happen or not. We would just have a vote on opting in to the agreement or not, without having a say in the content of the agreement. We are better off being in the room trying to agree the agreement, as opposed to just being a nodding head afterwards going along with it.