Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

The Government has announced the legal requirement to hold a referendum on the fiscal treaty. The legal advice, however, has not been published and I would like the Taoiseach to tell the House if he intends to publish that advice. It is my belief he should and that it would be helpful.

The public fundamentally need the most comprehensive form of information possible on this treaty, a request I am hearing a lot on the street from people, who want it explained to them in simple terms in a comprehensive manner. Will the Taoiseach outline to the House the timing he envisages for the holding of the referendum? Will it happen in May or in the autumn, as conflicting reports are suggesting? Will the Taoiseach tell the House whether the wording of the referendum Bill has been completed and, if not, when it will be finalised? Following on from that, could the Taoiseach give Members a timeline for the establishment of the referendum commission?

Some the Taoiseach's Ministers are saying the negotiations on the promissory note issue should be linked to the referendum. In a major interview in the Financial Times, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, said a deal would be helpful, while the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, has stated it would not be helpful to connect the two. The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have said the two issues are not linked, nor should they be. Commentators like Mr. Quinn of Dow Jones came on "Morning Ireland" this morning and said emphatically that a deal has been done. Will the Taoiseach outline to the House what is going on? Is this the case? Has a deal been done on the promissory note? By any objective criterion and with any sense of natural justice independent of the signing of a treaty, a deal should and must be done, given that Ireland took the hit to protect the eurozone at a time when there was no European mechanism in place. Given what has been said this morning and that some Ministers are strongly hinting a deal has been done, will the Taoiseach confirm whether a deal has been done? Will it be done before the end of March? Will the Taoiseach clarify this issue in the House today?

See this speech in context