Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Either the Deputy is incorrect, or my advice and my direct knowledge is incorrect. This is the first I have heard about 27 Commissioners signing off on a 5% cap. I suggest it never happened. If it happened while I was president of the Council, nobody told me about it. Rather than agreeing to a 5% cap, some of the countries mentioned by the Deputy were quite opposed to the line I was pushing as president of the Council. It is not true that the European Parliament has approved a 5% cap. It has voted in favour of a 6% reduction. That is the cap it sought. The Lithuanian Presidency has made a compromise proposal that would involve a 7% cap, but it is being resisted. I think Ireland might support that, although we would prefer to see a lower ceiling. That is the latest position as I understand it.

See this speech in context