Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

The Taoiseach is in Brussels to hammer out a deal with his European counterparts today which, it appears, will almost certainly result in another referendum in this country in less than 12 months. The Government failed to convince the people previously. It is extremely important, if the Taoiseach gets the clarification in Brussels and if the concerns of the people are met, that we have a campaign that convinces the Irish people of the benefits of a treaty, with different and expanded explanations, and meets the concerns which were so clearly articulated. We need to have clear guarantees and messages about a Commissioner and about the range of other social and worker rights issues that were of concern to the people. We are aware, from research, of those concerns. It is important that we have a campaign that convinces the people and that we see leadership on this issue at this critical point for our future in Europe. That has been lacking to date. I hope that we will see the leadership that is needed over the coming months.

I welcome the deal that the Government has done with the food industry, with producers and processors. I am concerned that the industry has been put into crisis unnecessarily, given the kind of information that is coming from the European Food Safety Authority today. However, as I stated yesterday, I hope that the industry can recover quickly and that we will have the sort of international campaign that is necessary to save the industry.

I wish to briefly return to the case of Pamela Izevbekhai, which has been raised in this House by Senator Leyden and others on a number of occasions. Ms Izevbekhai has been granted leave to remain but I hope she will not be deported in the dead of night. This House should agree an all-party motion that would help ensure she is not deported when her hearing is over.