Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Deputy's fundamental point that a full debate must take place in the Oireachtas when issues of this nature arise. The difficulty, however, is that this is an international agreement among the countries concerned that has come before the Oireachtas for ratification. The House cannot change the contents of the agreement. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, has given a commitment to introduce primary legislation should any change be made to the amount of money involved. This would require holding a full debate in the House on each Stage of any such Bill. If the amount of money is not fundamentally changed, the Constitution allows a motion to be passed in the Oireachtas. However, fundamental changes to the agreement could not be rubber-stamped and would require a full debate similar to that which we have had over the past three days.

It should be noted that a guillotine was not used on the Bill. All Deputies had an opportunity to express their views and Deputies from all sides engaged in a full and frank discussion and made excellent contributions in which all relevant issues were scrutinised. The constitutional obligation to introduce a motion in the Dáil for acceptance or rejection is adequate. The proposal should stand.

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