Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)

He confirmed that our Government's negotiators worked with other governments to achieve this weakening of the text. In return, we got the German Government's insistence that ESM access would be conditional on supporting the treaty, a fine achievement.

The Government must have been gutted yesterday when the Attorney General reported on her deliberations. Of course, Sinn Féin had already sought and received the same expert legal advice and we were ready and willing to take the case to the courts if the Government had denied the people their say. Now the people have the outcome they wanted.

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