Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)

I imagine the mood among those in the Cabinet was sombre yesterday when the Attorney General's deliberations were reported and it dawned on them that a referendum was unavoidable. I recall when the Tánaiste addressed the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs on this issue. We probed and determined that the term "preferably constitutional" was changed in the text. The only achievement our Government actively negotiated, apparently, was to weaken the text to avoid a referendum. The Tánaiste confirmed that-----

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