Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

On the first issue, Deputy Kenny will acknowledge the Government has been very active in respect of the WTO for many months and on the agricultural issue in particular. Since Christmas, the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy John McGuinness, has explained our position to a large number of countries directly. The Minister for Foreign Affairs also has done so at every available meeting and contact with his colleagues. The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Mary Coughlan, has been putting forward this point in the Agriculture and Fisheries Council and I have been talking directly to the prime ministers at a number of levels.

The point is simple enough. In the discussions that took place in 2005, the agriculture ministers were asked to make a considerable concession on agriculture in respect of tariffs and the removal of barriers to trade. This was in addition to what had happened during the 2001 to 2002 period. They did so and it constituted a considerable concession that went to what was considered to be the outer limit of what could be done. This was not a negotiating stance but was a genuine movement of the position to try to facilitate the completion of the WTO talks and to allow for a full ministerial meeting to take place at that time. There is always a risk in negotiations of moving positions but we explained our position on agricultural interests at the time and everybody thought, because there are two sides to the argument and multinational companies in this country and other trade sectors undertook a considerable degree of lobbying, this was the thing to do in order to get a balanced agreement. That is what we did. I spoke at that stage because the position was being wound up in regard to this country and France, in particular. President Chirac also took a stand at the time. In order to set out the Irish position, I spoke individually to the CEOs of more than 40 American companies based here which had been given a particular slant. Speaking to them one by one took a considerable amount of time.

Over the past couple of months our fear has been that Commissioner Mandelson would move beyond that remit without it being an agreed position. We have made the position very clear to President Barroso, member states and everybody else. I do not want to be overly critical of any Commissioner but I do not understand the logic of anyone moving to a position in the absence of action by the United States. That country is involved in this while at the same time operating, as it does very well, its own protectionist policy on agricultural issues. Far from moving, it is consolidating its own position. In our view, therefore, the logic of the argument is not good and we have set out that position clearly. Last week I met the IFA and industry leaders in the meat and dairying sectors to indicate our exact position so there would be no ambiguity as regards the Irish Government's stance in these negotiations.

As everyone in the House will be aware, for the last several referendums, or at least since the McKenna judgment, the Referendum Commission has stated that it requires sufficient time and ideally would like ten weeks to three months. This time we have given it the full period which, given that it was set up last week, will comprise March, April and May. The commission will be given €5 million in a Supplementary Estimate, which is a good budget.

From the point of view of information, I concur with Deputy Kenny that the only problem at present is that people are not aware of all the information available to them. I would love the people in this House and our friends in the media to highlight the amount of information that is available. An extensive information campaign will be conducted by the Government. Information which is already available includes the website of the Forum for Europe, the document which was completed before Christmas, the explanatory memorandum, the Bill and the consolidated text of the agreement, while the White Paper will be published shortly. I have been involved in many referendums and this is the simplest to understand. It is no Maastricht or Amsterdam. If people read the 22 page document, they will be well informed. That is not to say I am against anybody reading all 486 pages of the consolidated text several times but I do not think everybody will do that, so the first 22 pages are sufficient. An enormous amount of information is available — more than I have ever seen three months prior to a referendum.

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