Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

As soon as the agreement is completed next week, with whatever final issues might be included the Attorney General will give a formal legal judgment. The outcome is not in doubt. However we must go through this legal process. Then the treaty will be signed. We must then turn our minds to the date to bring forward referendum legislation to allow us to hold the referendum. We must put the machinery in place for a referendum commission and structure a campaign. I look forward to talking to Opposition leaders next week and coming to an agreed view on that.

If possible I would like to honour the commitment we made on the children's rights referendum. The committee on the constitutional amendment on children begins its work this week. The members said they would need four months. That takes us to the end of March or so, around Easter. I understand that this timeframe cannot be improved on, which brings us into the next parliamentary session because Easter is very early in 2008. We will have to consider whether it will be possible to hold the two referendums. From talking to people around the House on this issue, there are differences of opinion. Some people favour having one, while others believe we should have two. We will have to form a judgment on this and I am quite happy to discuss these issues with colleagues from other parties.

As regards the Deputy's other question, there is no doubt, given that it looks extremely likely that Ireland will be the sole EU member state that has to have a referendum, that this will clearly focus the eyes of Europe on us. The ability of the European Union to move forward, having had a long protracted period of debate about institutional change for the better part of a decade, hopefully will be completed if each country ratifies the reform treaty in terms of its own parliamentary or electoral process or constitutional arrangements. In our case, we have to do both. Sometimes people forget a treaty must be ratified by the Houses of the Oireachtas as well as by the people. Ireland is unique within Europe in that regard and it is a very good opportunity to show Europe how we can move forward.

Essentially, the reform treaty is about developing the EU in terms of providing for 27 or more member states, as against nine or 12 in the past. It is also about the extremely important issue of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, improved parliamentary scrutiny and to give individual parliaments a greater role by being involved in such procedures. These are the essential issues. It is about reforming the institutions and how we do our business, putting arrangements in place for a larger Europe, dealing with the Charter of Fundamental Rights, parliamentary scrutiny etc. These are the big issues and the onus is on us to do what others will not be doing, namely, win popular support for the reform treaty. That would be good for this country and for Europe for the next decade. All the member states have pledged that they do not intend to return to institutional matters for the next decade. That is a wise decision, having spent so much time on this issue. This initiative will stand the test of time for at least the next decade and it will be important for this country to have played a key part.

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