Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

No, the Deputy is wrong again. The treaty provided that, if agreed, the number of Commissioners could be reduced to 18, subject to the principle of equal rotation. It also provided that the number of Commissioners could stay at 27, if unanimous agreement could be reached on that. That is what it said. It was not in the Sinn Féin literature, but that is what the treaty said. As the Deputy would say, Sinn Féin got out its scéal and away it went. The Deputy suggested that we should decide how many members of Government we should have, and how many Ministers of State should support the work of those Ministers, on the basis of the number of Commissioners the European Union has. I do not agree. I regard any decision on the number of Ministers this country should have as a sovereign matter for the Irish Government.

See this speech in context