Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)

The point I make is that it is not in the treaty and Mr. Hollande wants it to be. The Government is now campaigning for a treaty which may not be relevant in a few weeks time if Mr. Hollande and other leaders get their way. Does the Taoiseach realise that it might be better to defer the referendum, as other nations are deferring ratification in anticipation of or as a precaution against this happening. Otherwise, I suspect we will be jumping the gun.

The issue of growth is possibly more important to this country than to any other nation in Europe. It is even more important now - I remind the Taoiseach that last Friday the Department of Finance finally, after many months of delay, decided to downgrade the growth forecast for the nation from 1.3%, on which it and the Government had stood for many months when nobody else believed it, to 0.7%. The issue of growth is even more important now because the figure is lower and the Department's forecast is lower than 1.3%, the figure on which the budget was based in December.

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