The Tánaiste has missed the point. The point about these embarrassing leaks which came from the Bundestag today is that the impression, and maybe the rightful impression, remains that our economic policy and the policy of austerity is dictated, decided and revealed elsewhere. It did not come here first. That is the problem. We need an assurance today that this will not happen again. It is no use getting officials to talk to each other on the telephone.

It will not help the selling of the referendum either if this impression continues to be given by the Bundestag. What will help the selling of the referendum by the Government is if the Taoiseach, who is in a unique position in Brussels today, says this referendum is an advantage to us and let us turn it into a positive. The whole Cabinet was shell-shocked by the fact there was to be a referendum but it can be turned into a positive because it is a wild card in the Taoiseach's pocket when he goes to Europe today.

He should go there and say the Irish people will respond better to a referendum if there are no more leaks from the Bundestag and if the Anglo Irish Bank promissory notes come into the equation. I heard the Tánaiste say, I think on "Prime Time" the other night, that the Anglo Irish Bank promissory notes were not linked to the referendum.

A question, please. Thank you.

They are and they are very strongly linked to the riddle of austerity which is being imposed on this country.

Will the Tánaiste assure this House that he will embark on a diplomatic offensive to tell those 27 countries that the Irish people would look much more benignly on this referendum, which they want to see passed, if they looked more benignly on our debt and were prepared to give us a credit write-off?

To be honest, I do not know whether Deputy Ross is for or against the referendum. He came in here when we announced we were holding it and I think he told us he was going to oppose it. Now he seems to be suggesting that he might support it in certain circumstances. Let me tell Deputy Ross something.

Finian, see which way the wind is blowing.

I do not know how he sees Irish diplomacy working but I will tell him how I see it working. We will not trade the constitutional rights of the Irish people with anybody or for anything. The referendum we will have is one for the Irish people to decide whether they want to ratify the treaty concluded on 30 January.

Treaty or no treaty, we will continue the discussions we had already begun with the troika in regard to the re-engineering of the promissory notes which are very onerous on the Irish people and on the Irish taxpayer. We had already commenced work on that and work is taking place with the troika which we hope will produce a positive result for Ireland. We are not linking it to any treaty. We have been engaged in that for some time and we will continue with that engagement.

The treaty which we believe is required in order to ensure stability in the euro zone, so there will be investment in Europe and Ireland to create jobs, is something we will put to the people on its own merits. We have no intention of engaging in any kind of a trade-off of the constitutional rights of the Irish people to decide on that treaty in their own time and based on their own judgment with anybody or for anything.

I now understand why the Tánaiste did not make the Minister for Social Protection the Minister for Finance because she said in an interview today with the Financial Times that the European Union should cut the cost of Ireland’s bailout to help it pass the eurozone fiscal pact in a high stakes referendum. If that is not linking one with the other, I do not know what is. She went on to endorse that in stronger terms in that interview.

Let us get this straight. Do the Labour Party and the Government not understand the rightful perception among the people that the austerity, which is being imposed in this fiscal compact, is linked to the fact that it is also imposed because of the promissory notes?

If we can get money off and get a debt write-off on the promissory notes, we will also have less austerity.

We all realise that.

Perhaps the Tánaiste will comment on what the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, had to say to the Financial Times this morning.

The Government has a record of success in the renegotiation of the entire bailout arrangements and the deal done with the EU and the IMF. Despite the scepticism of some Members, we successfully negotiated significant reductions in the interest rate for the financial arrangements, which is worth €10 billion to the Irish people.

What about the Greeks?

We continue to be engaged in talks with the troika to explore possible ways to re-engineer the promissory notes and find a less expensive solution for the people by, for example, replacing them with other financial instruments with long maturity. The discussions are under way and we continue with that work. The Minister for Social Protection made it very clear in her interview that negotiations on the treaty and the holding of the treaty referendum are not linked. They are separate processes and we will continue with the process until we get a satisfactory outcome for the people.

With regard to the treaty, it should be ratified so there will be stability in the euro and we will get the investment in Europe, and particularly Ireland, to create jobs to bring about economic growth that will help us get out of the economic difficulty we found ourselves in and out of the EU-IMF programme, which the Government wants out of as quickly as possible.