Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I cannot really confirm that matter, which would be best addressed to the Taoiseach. The Attorney General will need to give formal advice on whether a referendum is required for the St. Andrews agreement. He did not attend Cabinet yesterday. The matter has not arisen at any Cabinet meetings I have attended since the discussions took place at St. Andrews. Therefore the question of when it would take place and whether it would be joined with any other proposal would probably be dependent, regarding the children's issue, on trying to build consensus in the House on what that constitutional amendment should entail. I note some of the proposals from the Joint Committee on Child Protection, under the chairmanship of Deputy Peter Power, have also been published in today's newspapers. All the work needs to be pulled together by the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, to ascertain whether the matter can be dealt with consensually on an all-party basis.

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