Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

In Deputy Quinn's earlier contribution he asked whether it was anticipated that movement on the financial perspectives would be made during the UK Presidency as opposed to the Austrian Presidency, but we honestly do not know. Tony Blair seemed very content that a decision would not be made during the Luxembourg Presidency. From what he said yesterday, he may well have some plans on this but the general view is that the UK Presidency will have considerable difficulty in acting as an honest broker given that the key issue that must be addressed in the financial perspectives is the UK rebate.

Indeed, Jean-Claude Juncker said on many occasions during the time we were there that irrespective of the Presidency that will be dealing with the existing financial perspectives, there can be virtually no deviation from the parameters we are currently in and that it was not possible to rewrite the financial perspectives given the dynamic heretofore, not least in respect of the CAP. In respect of the CAP, we made the case that a deal is a deal. Even if the issue was about steel workers in another part of the EU, we must accept that if an agreement is made to which all the member states sign up after much pain, as did the United Kingdom in the guise of Prime Minister Tony Blair, in respect of a period up to 2013, and if we try to get the ordinary people on side — in this case the farmers — we cannot turn around and break that agreement. People say there is a democratic deficit in the EU. This would be an example where people could say that after only two years we are going back on a decision. Is it any wonder there might be a perception of cynicism among the electorate in terms of the decisions we make? That is why we stated, on a matter of principle, that as far as we were concerned the CAP arrangement is sacrosanct.

In respect of arrangements by my Department on the preparation for an eventual referendum, as I said in a different forum earlier today, as a Government we were trying, in consultation with the other like-minded parties, to have all our ducks lined up, so to speak, in such a way that we would be able to make a decision about the timing of the referendum. We published our legislation just before the French referendum, wisely in my opinion. The White Paper is ready for publication but we have decided to delay that and publish it in September, obviously taking on board some of the issues that have arisen in the meantime. Ultimately, we expect there would be a debate in this House on the referendum Bill. We will not bring in the Referendum Commission until such time as we are happy in the knowledge that proper engagement has taken place.

In terms of the forum that will be used, conclusions issued after the discussion on the constitution of the Council indicated that there was a consensus on the issue of a period of engagement and that we would re-examine that during the Austrian Presidency. I expect it would be primarily at the GAERC meetings, as they are called, but it was also stated specifically in consultation with the other institutions of the EU, not least the Commission which would have a strong role in this area.

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