Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

The Taoiseach may be interested or amused to hear that a little bet is made in our office about how many questions he will take all at once. When one of my comrades said he would take Nos. 2 to 30 I said no, that he would not take as many as that, but he did. It is challenging for us in terms of assisting us to get information when 28 questions are taken together. I am sure if the Taoiseach were sitting on this side of the House he would make the same point. I am sure he did make the same point back in the day.

We discussed earlier the notion that it is very unfair that the Bundestag can have informed discussion about matters pertaining to this country and we do not have the information, but what is really worrying is the line the Taoiseach is taking on treaty change. He referred to limited treaty change and said there may be other ways of doing this but the central point is that there is a two-tier European Union. If one looks back at everything Sinn Féin has said on the issue going right back to 1972, it has all been borne out. There were reports this morning on the notion - the German Chancellor was reported to have alluded to some of this - that some of the weaker states would have to be put into trusteeship. What way is that to have a Union of partners?

I previously asked the Taoiseach a number of times about the matter. Will he be clear in assuring the Dáil that any treaty change of the magnitude that has been described - I accept this is a moveable feast but I do not refer to the limited change to which he sometimes alludes - will be put to a referendum. I ask the Taoiseach to be straight about the issue in his reply as if he and I were sitting in a corner talking about it. People in this country should have their say on this type of change, which I think is coming, and that there is an attempt to foist it upon us.

See this speech in context