Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank all Deputies for their contributions. The Government has been working extremely hard since the decision was made on the Lisbon treaty. We commissioned quantitative and qualitative research. We facilitated and worked with other parties to establish the Oireachtas sub-committee. To suggest nothing was done, as Deputy Creighton has done, is wrong. The Fine Gael Party has an honourable tradition of being pro-European Union and has always had the Union as part of its core policy platform. I have a sense that in recent times during the Lisbon treaty campaign and now it is a greater priority to criticise the Government rather than advance a unified approach to the European Union.

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