Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I am informed that Prime Minister Topalanek's government narrowly lost the vote of confidence in the Czech Parliament yesterday and while this is highly undesirable from the point of view of the Union because the Czech Republic holds the rotating Presidency and we need to have stability in these times, it is not unprecedented. It is for the Czech Republic's democratic process to resolve the domestic political issues and I will not speculate on such details. I am confident this will be carried out in a way that minimises disruption to EU business at this very important juncture. The question of the date for the holding of the referendum in Ireland will be based on the outcome of a European Council meeting that will consider the legal texts to give effect to the political guarantees we have obtained.

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