Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

Gabh mo leithscéal. Will the Leader seek clarification that the commitment given by the Taoiseach is one he can fulfil? The veto will not exist if the Lisbon treaty is ratified, and the Taoiseach knows that. That is why this hand-wringing exercise has been going on for months. We had a debate on the World Trade Organisation and supposedly tried to clarify this issue, but when the Minister attended this House he did not mention the word "veto". The Minister failed to answer specific questions that were put to him about where in the legal text of the treaty we would have the option to use the veto in a post-Lisbon scenario. I wrote a detailed letter and the Minister of State was accepting——