Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

All the focus in discussions surrounding the treaty, involving the Government, has been to avoid a referendum. Media reports emanating from the EU have confirmed this. Speaking at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Affairs, the Tánaiste also admitted that Government negotiators were actively trying to weaken the text and to insert the words "preferably constitutional" in order to avoid the requirement that it be put to the people. Try as they did, however, the Government parties failed. The Taoiseach's attitude to this is a bit like Samuel Beckett's quotation: "Try again, fail again, fail better."

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