Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I appreciate that the Taoiseach does not have the text in front of him but I am surprised that he does not recall the change that was made in the text because according to the press reports which appeared after the Council meeting that change in the text was made arising from requests - some news reports described them as "demands" - by the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who wanted to include in the text of the treaty change a Latin expression, ultima ratio, to reflect that the financial stability mechanism would only be activated as a last resort. The compromise that was arrived at, apparently, was the phrase, that it was to be "activated if indispensable". A text was in circulation, about which we had some exchanges some time ago, at least about the general idea. There was a lot of commentary about this at the time. It was well known that the German position at the Council meeting was to push the last resort concept. The phraseology that was arrived at was "activated if indispensable". I am surprised the Taoiseach does not recall that change being made and that he is not in a position to tell us what it means. It is going into the text of the European treaties. He has told us the Attorney General has said no referendum is required. We need to be told what is the Government's understanding of that phraseology since it was clearly of sufficient significance that the change was apparently made at the Council itself.

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