Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

It would be the intention to have legislation on the referendum before the summer recess if we have a successful outcome. At this point I cannot anticipate whether the legal guarantees that are being worked on will provide us with the outcome we desire based on the December Council conclusions. However, if we get those and if they are what are required, then of course that enables us, as I said in my primary reply, to go the people with a new package based on that detailed work being conducted and a decision of the European Council being made at the June Council meeting.

In respect of any EU states that are seeking a date for a referendum, I refer them to the conclusions of the December Council meeting, which were agreed by all the member states. They clearly set out the areas upon which further work is being conducted. On the basis of a successful outcome we will be in a position, having obtained the decision of the European Council, to indicate when we will hold a referendum. We have to approach this step by step. It would not be appropriate to give an indication of that detailed work in advance of it being completed and agreed by a formal decision of the European Council because that would be anticipating an outcome that we cannot predict at present. As matters stand, we must be mindful of the decision of the people and until such time as we complete the current process we should avoid coming to a conclusion on that because otherwise one would be anticipating an outcome without completing the work.

The questions put to me pertained to referendums. One of the issues raised will be subject to further discussion this week by the Select Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights. This issue is referred to in the Constitution and the question that arises is whether to address it through a referendum or by way legislation. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform can discuss the issue in some detail and he addressed it with a great deal of clarity in a newspaper article published on 1 May. Unfortunately, he is misrepresented as being motivated by other reasons, which is certainly not the case. It is a question of dealing with the issue in the interest of proceeding with the Defamation Bill 2006 while respecting the Constitution's provisions on freedom of expression. The Government is holding discussions with the EU's legal services on all these matters and hopes to reach a conclusion by June.

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