Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I will bring a Bill to amend our existing European Communities legislation before the House early in the new year. It will address two matters. First, it will tidy up the issue of the number of Members of the European Parliament, in the aftermath of the Lisbon treaty. Second, it will enable further legislation to be introduced by the Minister for Finance with regard to the European Stability Mechanism. The Minister will introduce a separate Bill in relation to the mechanism. As I have said previously, work is under way to draft an international agreement on foot of the outcome of last week's summit. When that work has been completed, the Government will have to consider how the agreement will be dealt with. It will be impossible to address that until the work on the completion of the international agreement comes to a conclusion.

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