Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

On that issue, it really does not matter what others do. The Taoiseach says he wants to know what others are doing but that does not matter. If EU law requires it, then that is the position. What does it matter what others are doing? The Government introduced an early years payment so it would be separate and different from child benefit. The Government considered adding the money to child benefit, a tax refund and a number of other things, but the Minister specifically brought in a different and separate payment and conveyed the impression that it was to assist with the inordinately high cost of child care in this jurisdiction for children irrespective of their nationality. He communicated something different from what the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, has found out. The numbers he used in parliamentary replies of 350,000 children make that clear.

On the EuroMed summit and the statement the Taoiseach made in the newspapers after that summit that the time had come to call for a debate on enlargement, what considerations did the Taoiseach have in mind that motivated him to call for that debate?

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