Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Roche, and the Minister, Deputy Martin, for the manner in which they have presented the legislation, and for the entire debate and the precursor of it, the Lisbon treaty and the campaign that took place to ratify that. I thank also the officials on the good work done behind the scenes. Sometimes we forget all of that hard slog. A significant amount of work was done by them throughout the campaign and the treaty ratification. I welcome that and compliment them on it.

I compliment everybody who was involved because it was an arduous period. A great deal rested on the outcome of the treaty. What we are doing today is tying up loose ends and preparing for the ratification instruments. We hope it will be possible to put everything together next week and that the Czech President will have changed his mind or else made sufficient progress so that he will be prepared to sign the ratification documents and that we can all move forward together. I thank the Minister of State for his contribution and his consideration in all of the matters today.

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