Eugene Regan (Fine Gael)

If Sarah Palin does visit it might be appropriate that it would be when we have the debate on hand gun legislation, which I believe the Minister will put before the Oireachtas.

We have had an initiative from the Irish-led Mallabraca consortium to recapitalise Irish banks, which lacked credibility and does not appear to be going anywhere. There is a headline in The Irish Times today, "New plan to recapitalise Irish banks offered to Lenihan", by the Irish Association of Investment Managers, which seems to have some rationale. The real question is what is the Minister's view and what is his plan or strategy on the current crisis in the banking system? He should inform this House — perhaps he will gain some insights into how he might move forward were the matter to be addressed in this House and the Lower House. It is one of the most important issues in the economy and the Government cannot resolve the current economic crisis until it first resolves the banking crisis.

Regarding the report of the sub-committee and the information that the constitutional court in the Czech Republic has ruled that the Lisbon treaty is compatible with the constitution, all the indications are that we will have a Lisbon II referendum in this country at some future date. That is an issue that should be the subject of debate in this House before the December European Council.

Even if we have a re-run of the referendum on the Lisbon treaty there is a time delay and there is a crucial issue in regard to the European Parliament elections. There is an opportunity at the December European Council to resolve those institutional issues that are part of the Lisbon treaty and to have a mini-intergovernmental conference side by side with the European Council in December, which would allow all member states, including Ireland, to ratify that part of the treaty and allow the European Parliament elections to take place on the basis of the Lisbon provisions. I ask the Leader to invite the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs to inform the House of the Government's plans in that regard.