Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Taoiseach in the course of his opening address to the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis last Friday evening indicated it was the Government's intention to reduce the limits for declaration of contributions to political parties. When will the legislation be introduced to do that? How will that be squared with the ethics legislation currently before the House, which provides for increases in declaration limits for various matters? Is it intended to amend the ethics Bill to reflect the intention announced by the Taoiseach on Friday night, which I welcome?

I refer again to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government's statement that Ireland should withdraw from the European Defence Agency, EDA, to help persuade the public to back the Lisbon treaty and yesterday's newspaper report that he intended to raise it at a Cabinet sub-committee.

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