Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

When the Taoiseach was attending the summit meeting last week, I attended a parallel meeting just before it of leaders of Labour and Social Democrat parties from the 27 member states. Surprise was expressed there that the Irish Commissioner and the Taoiseach had, during the course of the campaign, stated they had not read the treaty. Was that issue raised with the Taoiseach at the summit meeting he attended?

The Taoiseach said the Lisbon treaty cannot come into effect as a result of the decision of the Irish referendum. That is a fact. There cannot be ambiguity about that. The treaty requires unanimity and, therefore, cannot be ratified and come into effect without our agreement. Arising from the discussions he had, what is the Taoiseach's assessment of the prospects of ratification in the remaining member states that have yet to make a decision? Is it the case that it is not a foregone conclusion that all of the remaining member states will ratify the treaty?

Was there any discussion about what would happen in the event that all the remaining member states ratify the treaty and we finish with 26 states having ratified the treaty and one not having ratified it? Was there any proposal, suggestion or indication given of the thinking of the other 26 members states in that scenario?

There was much press speculation around the meeting the Taoiseach attended that there would be a second referendum. That cannot be. We had a referendum and got a decision. We cannot go back again and ask people to vote a second time on the same proposition on which they have just voted. Apart from whether that should be done, it would not succeed. One of the suggestions floating around was that the Commissioner problem would be resolved and that all 27 member states would end up with a Commissioner. Was that proposal discussed at the meeting or suggested to the Taoiseach? Is there a proposal that there will be a Commissioner for all 27 member states?

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