Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The position is that we must consider what it is the referendum Bill will contain. As the Deputy will be aware, in the past it always has been a strong feature of referenda in Ireland that one does not insert too much detail into the Constitution and legislates for the details that are contained in treaties.

The Government will reflect on that next week. We will be in a much clearer position, once the timeline is set out, on the process of setting up the Bill, the referendum commission and the person to chair that, and how one proceeds afterwards to have a campaign that funds the case, both for and against, as applies and the difficulties that all of that has brought with it.

The fact that work has been ongoing on the promissory note for quite some time is not linked with the fact that the Attorney General gave her formal legal advice to which the Government is responding quickly. Deputy Ross should not get carried away that there is a longing and an expectation that this will be concluded, in so far as the promissory note is concerned, on 17 March or whenever.

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