Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Taoiseach makes it sound as if the Government was not a party to the committee that produced the wording for the referendum. It was represented on the committee. The Taoiseach referred to a number of matters on which homework needs to be done. I am surprised, as he appears to acknowledge, that no homework was done on the implications of the referendum - financial and resource implications and so on - in preparation for the Government's participation in the committee.

This is the first time that I can recall that the Taoiseach has introduced financial and resource implications as a reason for delaying the holding of the referendum. My understanding up to now was that the Government's position was that it was taking advice from the Attorney General in respect of the wording agreed by the all-party committee. It seemed to be taking an unusually long period of time to take that advice. I believe the all-party committee reported on the wording in February and we are still awaiting the advice. The Taoiseach is now adding a new dimension into this, the financial and resource implications, which seems to be a way of basically blocking the holding of the referendum at all.

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