Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Politically, the Minister may or may not agree that the EU without Britain will be seen as an EU in which weight has shifted towards the federalist agenda. The Minister needs a strategy to ensure national sovereignty is respected. The Government's position, which is to let the OECD deal with the matter, is considered by many to be a tactical consideration based on the presumption that the OECD will never do anything, or at least nothing significant, to enact change anytime soon. The Commission's target is the infamous passerelle clause which, as the Minister knows, was introduced by the Lisbon treaty. This is a means of removing the veto. As the Minister will be well aware, once the veto is gone it is gone for good. From a sovereignty point of view there can be no question of facilitating any removal of our veto through the passerelle clause. Does the Minister expect any formal proposal to use this clause in the coming period? Will he be definitive here and now that Ireland's answer will be "No"?

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